In Summer 2024 Ray Gastil participated in the Barcelona Field School City Lab Barcelona program. He wrote about his findings on the Post Alley forum: Rethinking How the City Works: Barcelona’s Superblocks.
Speaking on innovation in post-industrial regions at an industry and academic summit and symposium. Metropolitan Innovation Summit Ruhr 2022. Dortmund, Germany. Presented on regional resilience.
Engaging in the CityLab Amsterdam dialogue on cities, innovation, biking and mobility, and equity. 2022.
Consulting on Strategic Design Guide for improving regional highway corridors. Working with Civic Design and Planning LLC, Michael Baker International, and the Quaker Valley Council of Governments, contributed to the charrettes, study and report on “Redefining Regional Highways Corridors: Strategic Design Guide: Opportunities for Design, Transportation, Economic Development, and Governance,” with COG and PennDOT support. How can a safer, greener, and more thriving corridor be developed, from the historic Ohio River Boulevard, that better connects to communities and creates more opportunities. 2021.
On ‘Adaptive Preservation’ and Urban Design, research, talk, and article article by Ray Gastil on two iconic Pittsburgh structures.
Writing on the Adaptive Preservation of two iconic Pittsburgh structures, a 1920s distribution building, the Produce Terminal in the Strip District, and the 1940s steel plant building, Mill 19, in Hazelwood Green in Hazelwood, discussing the process of adapting historic structures as part of contemporary programs in the context of the public realm. In Preservation Education and Research (PER) 2021.
Consulting on Urban Waterfronts. Contributes to Philadelphia Waterfront Advisory Panel. “Washington Avenue Waterfront Piers and District: A Resilient Land Use Cohort (RLUC) Virtual Advisory Services Panel.” ULI Panel Member for DRWC. 2021.
On Downtowns and the Future of Work. “Where Do I Get My Coffee.” Speaker/co-developer for panel discussion with experts from Horizant, Epistemix, and Carnegie Mellon on modeling the future for the location of work and its impact. 2021.
Downtowns and Adaptive Reuse. Ray Gastil spoke on “Downtowns: Adaptive Reuse Project of the 2020s in the “Covid-19: One Year Later” Series, Portland Society of Architects, March 5, 2021. The talk focuses on how downtowns are an adaptive reuse challenge that goes beyond individual buildings to the plazas, parks, and public spaces, indoors and out. The use and form of these spaces and their interconnections with the buildings that surround them are part and parcel of this reuse project. Accelerated trends, and new ones, are changing the role of central business districts, as neighborhoods, business centers, and places of equitable opportunity. 2021.
As City Planning Director, contributes to research on 3-D Visualization Software for city planning.