Trailblazer Ryan Gravel is going off on his own path!
Gravel spent more than seven years with Perkins + Will as an
urban designer and senior associate, and now he has formed his own firm. After
sending an email to his friends and co-workers informing them of his new firm
Sixpitch, Gravel left. Recipients of the email were encouraged to visit Gravel’s
website – www.ryangravel.com – and watch
the launch video of Sixpitch. He is well known for writing his master’s thesis
on a possible transformation of a 22-mile circular rail corridor surrounding
central Atlanta that we now know as the Atlanta BeltLine.
Gravel has been after the BeltLine for 16 years and is
thrilled to announce the start of his new firm. This way he can really focus on
the project and find out its true potential. In the prime of its birth, Gravel
sent copies of his idea to different Atlanta City Council representatives and
also then-City Council President Cathy Woolard. She soon became fascinated with
the idea. Once she left office, then-Mayor Shirley Franklin took over the development
of the BeltLine, and she created the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership board that aided
in raising money for the work. Soon after, Franklin had the city get a key
section of the BeltLine – the Eastside trail – from Wayne Mason, a Gwinnett
developer.
In addition to his work with Perkins + Will, Gravel spoke
regularly at events describing his discovery of the concept of the BeltLine
while he was just a student at Georgia Tech.
The city now controls more than half of the 22-mile
corridor, and Gravel is still enthusiastically involved in the BeltLine’s
design and development issues.
