Ryan Gravel: How an old loop of railroads is changing the face of a city
Ryan Gravel: Como um antigo circuito ferroviário está a mudar a face de uma cidade
Ryan Gravel is an architect and urban planner who played a key role in developing the Atlanta BeltLine. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
in college in the mid-'90s.
numa faculdade no anos 90.
like a French anarchist --
um anarquista francês.
I'd lost 15 pounds
perdi quase 7 Kg
da minha vida
num subúrbio de Atlanta,
by highways and automobiles
vias rápidas e automóveis.
as a poster child for sprawl,
cidade-tipo para expansão,
the way I understood
a forma como eu entendia
of infrastructure --
das infra-estruturas,
from point A to point B,
irem do ponto A ao ponto B,
or sewage or energy,
ou esgotos ou energia,
a nossa economia.
and for our culture,
e para a nossa cultura,
to the way that we live.
para a nossa forma de viver.
I was instantly frustrated,
fiquei logo frustrado,
the top end of our perimeter highway.
a parte final da nossa via-rápida.
that were hurtling past me,
que me ultrapassavam,
and their music blaring.
e a música aos berros.
an inevitable outcome,
o resultado inevitável,
this condition in Atlanta
esta situação em Atlanta
that I wanted to live in?
gostaria de viver?
in architecture and city planning,
e planeamento urbano,
em infra-estruturas,
of old railroad circling downtown
antigo à volta da baixa
for urban revitalization.
para revitalização urbana.
we would actually build it.
mesmo construí-la.
at an architecture firm,
de arquitectura,
to my coworkers about it,
aos meus colegas,
to more people about it,
pessoas sobre isso,
city council president.
câmara pouco depois.
around this idea:
da cidade em torno desta ideia:
de 35 km
e de transformação.
for two and a half years,
durante dois anos e meio,
and a handful of volunteers.
e uma mão-cheia de voluntários.
of people and ideas.
fantástico de pessoas e ideias.
who were used to fighting against things,
habituados a lutar contra projetos
as something that they could fight for;
algo pelo qual poderiam lutar;
of new growth in the city;
novo crescimento na cidade
who saw their mission
que viam a sua missão
by the shared vision.
pela visão comum.
aren't at the same table
não costumam estar na mesma mesa
and it was kind of weird,
e foi um bocado estranho,
fell in love with a vision
por uma visão
through their car windshields,
através dos seus pára-brisas,
be building it otherwise.
se não fosse assim.
our coalition was diverse.
era diversificada,
were part of our story.
parte da nossa história.
of the economic spectrum loved it, too.
da economia também a adoraram.
they weren't going to be able to be there
de não poderem estar lá
that they'd be priced out.
que fosse demasiado cara.
that kind of story before, right?
certo?
the Atlanta BeltLine would be different,
a Atlanta BeltLine seria diferente,
than anything we ever imagined
do que alguma vez imaginámos
subsidies for housing,
para habitação,
a list that continues to grow.
a lista continua a crescer.
that were required to make it happen.
para que isso acontecesse.
of implementation, and it's working.
da implementação, e está a funcionar.
of trail was opened in 2012,
foi aberta em 2012,
over three billion dollars
de dólares
the physical form of the city,
física da cidade,
we think about the city,
for living there.
ao habitá-la.
to the grocery store
ao supermercado
to get in the car.
as bicicletas?"
how ridiculous that is,
foi o que eu disse,
that their expectations for Atlanta
expectativas deles para Atlanta
is exactly like sprawl
exactamente como a expansão
in highways and automobiles
investimento em estradas e carros
a vida americana.
within it, of course.
claro.
making millions of decisions
milhões de decisões
not only the way that we build cities,
não só o nosso modo de construir cidades,
expectativas
for urban sprawl.
para a expansão urbana.
and strip malls and cul-de-sacs we wanted.
comerciais e becos sem saída que quisemos.
um dinamismo cultural.
of the places we live
dos espaços onde vivemos
are happening at that time.
a acontecer nesse momento.
was breaking down barriers,
a quebrar barreiras,
began its march
teve início
of our nation's promise.
promessa da nossa nação.
business -- everything was changing,
viagens, negócios. Estava tudo a mudar.
and private sectors were colluding
estavam a ser coniventes
before there were highways.
de haverem estradas.
to understand and acknowledge
e reconhecer
to some groups of people
alguns grupos de pessoas
in wonder and disgust, maybe,
admiração e desagrado, talvez,
of that inequity?
falta de equidade?
traffic hellscape?
trânsito infernal?
urban displacement,
urbano desenfreado,
and permanent outcomes?
inevitáveis e permanentes?
of our collective cultural decisions
decisões culturais colectivas
from our experience in Atlanta
experiência em Atlanta
are playing out everywhere,
ver-se em todo o lado,
not only old railroads,
não só ferrovias antigas,
and obsolete roadways,
e estradas obsoletas,
are reclaiming and reinventing
o mundo estão a reclamar e reinventar
of all catalyst infrastructure projects,
de infra-estrutura catalisadores,
for which similarly started
começou de forma semelhante
of being transformed
de ser transformado
infrastructure again,
de infra-estrutura inspiradora.
and fishing and boating
locais para pesca e barcos
and flood control.
e controlo de cheias.
the lives of people.
das pessoas.
the rest of us think about Los Angeles.
pensarem sobre Los Angeles.
apenas infra-estruturas.
para nós mesmos.
local food, urban agriculture,
comida local, agricultura urbana,
um movimento de artesanato,
early indicators of a really radical shift
iniciais de uma mudança radical
with these catalyst projects today,
com estes projectos catalisadores,
don't usually benefit everyone.
costumam beneficiar todos.
by this cultural momentum
por este dinamismo cultural
de impostos, preços e rendas,
prices and rents.
to not improve communities.
não melhorar as comunidades.
and transit and grocery stores.
parques e tráfego e supermercados.
to hold communities down
pôr as comunidades de lado
and address the financial realities
as realidades financeiras
happen on its own.
e não acontecerá por si só.
to this goal in Atlanta,
dedicado a este fim em Atlanta,
who made it possible in the first place.
o tornaram possível desde o início.
chamar-lhe sucesso, sem elas.
commitments to all those years
comprometi por todos estes anos
as my graduate thesis
como a minha tese
arduamente, com centenas de pessoas,
with thousands of people
the BeltLine is being built for
a BeltLine está a ser construída
as whether it's built at all.
de ser ou não construída.
whose lives we are changing,
a quem estamos a mudar a vida,
inevitáveis,
we just need to speak up.
apenas temos de nos exprimir.
vem nos nossos termos.
comes on our terms.
in the process of shaping change.
no processo de mudança pro-activa.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ryan Gravel - Urban planner, designer, authorRyan Gravel is an architect and urban planner who played a key role in developing the Atlanta BeltLine.
Why you should listen
Ryan Gravel is an urban planner, designer and author working on site design, infrastructure, concept development and public policy as the founding principal at Sixpitch. His Master's thesis in 1999 was the original vision for the Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile transit greenway that, with fifteen years of progress, is changing both the physical form of his city and the decisions people make about living there. Now a $4 billion public-private investment in the early stages of implementation, the project's health and economic benefits are already evident through record-breaking use of its first section of mainline trail and $3.1 billion of private-sector investment since 2005.
Alongside project work at Sixpitch and research on similar "catalyst infrastructure" projects around the world, Gravel's new book makes a compelling case about what these unexpected assets mean for our lives and why they matter. In Where We Want to Live – Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities (St. Martin's Press, 2016), he summons the streets of Paris, the spirit of Detroit, the unruly Los Angeles River and dozens of other examples to illustrate how a new cultural momentum is illuminating a brighter path forward for cities. Through insightful narrative, Gravel articulates how projects like the Atlantas Beltline, New York's High Line and Houston's Buffalo Bayou are part of this movement and how they will ultimately transform our way of life with the same magnitude that automobiles and highways did in the last century. More than discrete projects, he argues, they represent a shared vision for our future that will require us to forget tired arguments about traffic, pollution, blight and sprawl -- and instead leverage those conditions as assets in the creation of something far more interesting than anything we’ve seen so far.
Gravel's early work as a volunteer and later across the nonprofit, public and private sectors has brought his long-term commitment to sustainable city building full circle -- from vision, to advocacy, to planning, design and implementation. He speaks internationally and has received numerous awards for his work on the project.
Gravel's latest pipedream is a nonprofit idea studio called Generator, to be funded in part by a bar. While juggling two kids, amazing projects like the Atlanta City Design and requests for help navigating impacts from the Atlanta Beltline, he's also taking time to look up and enjoy the city he wants to live in.
Ryan Gravel | Speaker | TED.com