Ryan Gravel: How an old loop of railroads is changing the face of a city
瑞安 · 罣沃: 舊鐵道環線如何改變城市的樣貌
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.
我在巴黎的大學留學一年。
like a French anarchist --
法國無政府主義者
我所看見的自己。
I'd lost 15 pounds
我瘦了 15 磅,
by highways and automobiles
as a poster child for sprawl,
the way I understood
我對於周遭建設的認知。
of infrastructure --
from point A to point B,
從甲地送到乙地,
or sewage or energy,
and for our culture,
to the way that we live.
I was instantly frustrated,
the top end of our perimeter highway.
匆匆而過的人們沒任何互動;
that were hurtling past me,
and their music blaring.
耳中充斥著樂聲。
an inevitable outcome,
this condition in Atlanta
that I wanted to live in?
in architecture and city planning,
of old railroad circling downtown
for urban revitalization.
we would actually build it.
at an architecture firm,
to my coworkers about it,
to more people about it,
city council president.
around this idea:
通行和轉型的「亞特蘭大環線」。
for two and a half years,
我每週要開兩三次會,
and a handful of volunteers.
of people and ideas.
who were used to fighting against things,
as something that they could fight for;
是他們能夠爭取的,
獲利的建商,
of new growth in the city;
who saw their mission
而達成部分的自身使命。
by the shared vision.
aren't at the same table
聚集一堂尋求共同結果的。
and it was kind of weird,
fell in love with a vision
through their car windshields,
be building it otherwise.
our coalition was diverse.
were part of our story.
of the economic spectrum loved it, too.
they weren't going to be able to be there
他們負擔不起。
that they'd be priced out.
that kind of story before, right?
亞特蘭大環線將會不同。
the Atlanta BeltLine would be different,
than anything we ever imagined
subsidies for housing,
表單持續地增長。
a list that continues to grow.
的必要組織和機構。
that were required to make it happen.
of implementation, and it's working.
進展相當不錯。
of trail was opened in 2012,
over three billion dollars
已達三十多億美元。
the physical form of the city,
we think about the city,
for living there.
to the grocery store
to get in the car.
就是騎自行車上超市的。」
how ridiculous that is,
that their expectations for Atlanta
是多麼的強而有力。
is exactly like sprawl
的城市擴張相似,
in highways and automobiles
within it, of course.
making millions of decisions
數百萬人做出數百萬個決定,
not only the way that we build cities,
for urban sprawl.
and strip malls and cul-de-sacs we wanted.
大型購物商場和死路。
of the places we live
與其他當時發生的事物
are happening at that time.
was breaking down barriers,
began its march
of our nation's promise.
business -- everything was changing,
全都在變化著,
and private sectors were colluding
在高速公路出現前並不存在。
before there were highways.
to understand and acknowledge
今天我們應當理解並認知到
to some groups of people
in wonder and disgust, maybe,
投以驚訝和厭惡的目光,
of that inequity?
traffic hellscape?
urban displacement,
and permanent outcomes?
of our collective cultural decisions
自決自造的的共業呢?
from our experience in Atlanta
are playing out everywhere,
not only old railroads,
and obsolete roadways,
are reclaiming and reinventing
都在為自己糾正並重新設計
of all catalyst infrastructure projects,
原始建設範例 --
for which similarly started
of being transformed
樹立生活基礎設施的早期階段。
infrastructure again,
and fishing and boating
公園、垂釣、划船、
and flood control.
the lives of people.
the rest of us think about Los Angeles.
對洛杉磯的認知。
local food, urban agriculture,
城市農業、
early indicators of a really radical shift
建設城市的方式。
with these catalyst projects today,
從這類觸媒計畫中學到的,
don't usually benefit everyone.
by this cultural momentum
prices and rents.
to not improve communities.
and transit and grocery stores.
並不是解決之道。
to hold communities down
and address the financial realities
並解決現實的財務問題。
happen on its own.
to this goal in Atlanta,
who made it possible in the first place.
commitments to all those years
可不是抽象的人。
as my graduate thesis
with thousands of people
the BeltLine is being built for
與為何而做同等的重要。
as whether it's built at all.
whose lives we are changing,
we just need to speak up.
就必須大聲說出來。
comes on our terms.
in the process of shaping change.
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