Gastilworks LLC

EXPERTISE: PRACTICE & RESEARCH

Expertise

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. Ray Gastil draws on expertise in comprehensive planning and design excellence, together with experience in working with multidisplinary teams, for this transformational work.

Transit-Oriented Planning and Development

Revitalization Action Plans.

Planning, Zoning, and 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.

Practice & Research

Leadership

  • Gastilworks Planning & Design LLC, Consulting.
  • David Lewis Director of Urban Design and Regional Engagement: Director, Remaking Cities Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.
  • City Planning Director, City of Pittsburgh.
  • Planning Director, City of Seattle.
  • Director, Manhattan Office, Dept. of City Planning, New York City.
  • Director, Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture.
  • Transit-Oriented and Regional Design Director, Regional Plan Association.

Downtowns and Resilient Regions

  • “Rethinking How the City Works: Barcelona’s Superblocks,” Post Alley. Summer. 2024.
  • “Downtowns: Adaptive Reuse Project of the 2020s.” Portland Society for Architecture, COVID-19: One Year Later series.
  • “Cities, Planning and the New Service Economy.” FuturePerfect Talks. Podcast.
  • Metropolitan Innovation Summit Ruhr. Dortmund, Germany. Speaker on innovation and regional resilience session.
  • “Just Transition Platform: Carbon-Intensive Regions Seminar: Transatlantic Dialogue.” Panelist. European Commission.

Waterfronts

  • Riverlife. Board Member. Co-chair Design Committee.
  • City as Living Laboratory. Board Member.
  • “Washington Avenue Waterfront Piers and District: A Resilient Land Use Cohort (RLUC) Virtual Advisory Services Panel.” ULI Panel Member for DRWC.
  • “Adaptive Preservation: Lessons Learned from Challenges and Opportunities in Two Large-Scale Pittsburgh Projects.” Preservation Education and Research.
  • City Planning. Director of City Planning. Riverfront Zoning.
  • Publication. “Complexity and Contradiction in the Transformation of Pittsburgh’s Riverfronts.” River Cities.
  • Success Looks Different Now: Design and Cultural Vitality in Lower Manhattan.
  • Beyond the Edge, New York’s New Waterfront.

Housing and Transit Oriented Development

  • Urban Land Institute, Sound Transit Technical Assistance Panels, Consulting Technical Writer.
  • Value and Equity” Dialogue. Climate Change and the Design of the Built Environment.” Panelist/Published Dialogue.
  • “Better Boulevard Analytics. New Directions in Local Mobility.” Co-PI.
  • “New Local Mobility:  Local Improvements for Communities in the Region.” Co-PI.
  • Team Member/Contributor to Report: “Redefining Regional Highway Corridors: Strategic Design Guide: Opportunities for Design, Transportation, Economic Development, and Governance.”
  • “Digital Innovation and the Future of Mobility in Cities.” Urban Land Institute (ULI) Europe Leadership Retreat. Speaker. Rome.
  • National Summit on Design & Urban Mobility. American Architecture Foundation. Organizer and panelist for national summit regarding changing mobility in cities.
  • City Planning, Planning Director, Pittsburgh. City team co-lead. Inclusionary Zoning Committee.
  • City Planning, Task Force Cochair. Pittsburgh Affordable Housing Task Force.