LEARNING FROM WHERE YOU LIVE: INNOVATION AND CONNECTION Neighborhoods, districts, and cities are at the forefront of the urban transformation of North America, facing unprecedented growth by 2050. How can decisions we make now be informed by not only today’s culture of innovation, but by the incremental innovation of the everyday and the larger scale planning and design, good and bad, of earlier urbanization?

RAY GASTIL holds the David Lewis/Heinz Endowments Directorship of Urban Design and Regional Engagement at Carnegie Mellon University. Formerly, he served as City Planning Director for Pittsburgh from 2014. He held similar positions in Seattle and in the Manhattan Office of New York City Planning. The founding director of the Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture, where he led a program of exhibitions, design competitions, and forums, Gastil has taught architecture and urban design at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State University, and University of California, Berkeley. He has lectured and published on urban design, urban development, and waterfronts, focusing on the scale of the street and the district. Recent and current initiatives include rebuilding Pittsburgh’s partnership with communities in neighborhood planning, including the EcoInnovation District, as well the Riverfront Zoning ordinance, which established performance-based incentives along the 35 miles of Pittsburgh’s waterfronts. Gastil is a graduate of Yale University with a Master of Architecture from Princeton University.