Ray Gastil

City of Pittsburgh

Ray Gastil is a city planner and urban designer, now city planning director for Pittsburgh. Initiatives include neighborhood planning, focused on strategic improvement and investments, resilient waterfront communities, and complete streets.

He was planning director, Seattle, and Manhattan planning director, New York City, and was the founding director of Van Alen Institute, where he led exhibitions, publications, and design competitions, including Open: New Designs for Public Space and Beyond the Edge: New York’s New Waterfront.

Previously, he served as transit-oriented design director for Regional Plan Association. Recent publications include Success Looks Different Now: Design and Cultural Vitality in Lower Manhattan. He was 2011-2013 Chair in Design Innovation at Penn State, where his work included seminars, symposia, and studios on campuses, waterfronts, and urban innovation. Friedman Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley in fall 2013, he is serving as an Adjunct Professor, Master of Urban Design program, Carnegie Mellon University in 2015.