Gastilworks LLC


Gastilworks Planning & Design LLC, directed by Ray Gastil, focuses on contributing to thriving communities and regions. The practice is designed to address critical issues from rethinking downtowns and waterfronts to reconnecting mobility and community, as well as strategic planning for non-profit and built-environment organizations. By identifying and articulating approaches that are innovative and feasible, from strategic planning to detailed design guidelines, Gastilworks addresses a range of projects through research, coordination, and recommendations.

In a transformational decade for American cities, towns, and regions, planning and urban design are responding to critical challenges in how we work, shop, recreate, and learn, and how to foreground priorities of climate, equity, and community in our responses. Gastilworks is designed to draw on expertise in comprehensive planning and design excellence, as well as experience in assembling teams and partnering, to do this transformational work.

  • Planning, Design, and Development Team Selection and Coordination
  • Strategic Planning and Programming for Organizations
  • Teaching planning and urban design in university and general education
  • Speaking and Writing
  • Revitalization Action Plans for Downtowns
  • Urban Design District Guidelines
  • Campus Planning
  • Planning and Development Frameworks for Waterfronts
  • Strategic Planning for Public Space
  • Affordable Housing Initiatives and Zoning
  • Complete Streets Planning for Main Streets and Town Centers
  • Mobility Innovation Strategies
  • Neighborhood Planning

Ray Gastil, AICP, LEED AP ND, is a nationally recognized urban thinker and practicing city planner. As director of the Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, he focused on innovation and the future of urbanism, district scale planning and urban design, new local mobility, and regional resilience. In his role as director of Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning, he headed initiatives including Neighborhood Planning, Riverfront Zoning, and Affordable Housing. Prior to his work in Pittsburgh, he served as planning director in Seattle, as director of the Manhattan Office in the New York City planning department, founding director of  Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture, and head of transit-oriented and regional design programs at Regional Plan Association.