Transforming Seattle: Waterfront, Transit and Community
The Program
Seattle has remade its central waterfront, built an ever-expanding light rail system, and regenerated industrial riverfronts.
Discover how Seattle is transforming its central waterfront, revitalizing industrial land uses, and expanding the light rail transit system to connect vibrant mixed-use centers. These ambitious initiatives have achieved major milestones and yet continue to evolve and adapt to new urban and climate contexts.
In the Seattle program you will explore the newly opened waterfront with the leaders who have overseen this transformation. Together we will visit new segments of the recently opened waterfront, including the Overlook Walk rising above Seattle Aquarium’s new, iconic Ocean Pavilion, a spectacular public space connecting to historic Pike Place Market. We’ll ride the light rail network to transit-oriented communities. We’ll also travel to a radically different waterfront, the Duwamish Valley, where activists, academics, and civic leadership are working together to build environmental and community resilience.
Over three days and four evenings, based in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square waterfront, you’ll engage directly with senior planning officials and experts who have been instrumental in these transformative projects. The Seattle program is led by Ray Gastil—a former Seattle planning director with national expertise in waterfront and transit-oriented development. Immersing you in the life of the city, the Lab will reveal how Seattle, with a globally impactful economy from coffee to tech, is striving to meet the challenges of a sustainable future.
Learning objectives
- Analyze the planning, design, and implementation processes behind Seattle’s Central Waterfront redevelopment.
- Identify best practices for transit-oriented housing development, in relationship to , Sound Transit’s expanding Link Light Rail system
- Learn approaches to transforming industrial riverfronts, with a focus on balancing environmental restoration, economic revitalization, and community resilience
- Learn techniques for effective collaboration among activists, academics, arts, and civic leadership to achieve inclusive outcomes
- Gain insights into the leadership roles and decision-making processes of senior planning officials and experts involved in transformative city and regional projects
Schedule
Day 1
Welcome Dinner
- Meet the group and learn about the program in Pioneer Square at Seattle’s transformed waterfront
Day 2
New Waterfront
- Explore Seattle’s vibrant Waterfront Park with art, greenery, and iconic public spaces
- Marvel at Overlook Park’s stunning views and connection to Pike Place Market
- Experience the dynamic mix of maritime industry, recreation, and urban design
- See the generation of new public art in waterfront-adjacent Belltown Mural festival
Day 3
Link Light Rail
- Ride Light Transit’s expanded system to newly transit-oriented communities in Seattle and the region
- Discover how light rail transforms mobility and supports equitable growth
- Connect from Seattle’s evolving downtown to the region.
Day 4
Rebuilding Community
- Visit the Duwamish River People’s Park and salt-marsh habitat.
- Engage with resilient communities in South Park and Georgetown.
- Learn how Seattle leads in sustainable waterfront regeneration.
Includes
- Learning sessions with key officials, city planners, and community leaders who have led Seattle’s transformation
- 4 nights accommodation at the CitizenM Pioneer Square, located directly at the transformed central Seattle Waterfront
- All breakfasts and three group meals
- Walking tours and site visits
Meet the Experts
Ray Gastil AICP, draws on his experience as a city planning director in Seattle, Manhattan, and Pittsburgh, where he led major transit-oriented development, housing, and waterfront planning initiatives. Current consulting includes contributing to transit-station area planning and mass timber initiatives. He has taught in the graduate programs of UPenn, UC Berkeley, Penn State, and Carnegie Mellon, where he headed the Remaking Cities Institute.
At Van Alen Institute, Gastil led a program of urban design competitions, publications, and exhibitions, focused on open space and waterfronts, including the exhibition and publication Open: New Designs for Public Space and the book, Beyond the Edge: New York’s New Waterfront. Recent essays and talk have focused on adaptive reuse, complete streets, downtown revitalization, and remaking waterfronts. He holds an M.Arch. from Princeton and serves on the board of Riverlife and the City as Living Laboratory.
Lyle Bicknell is a Seattle based urban designer. Former Principal Urban Designer for the City of Seattle, he continues to promote and advocate for urban design excellence throughout the public realm. Lyle is an affiliate faculty member of the University of Washington’s College of the Built Environments where he received his architectural degree.
Rico Quirindongo, Director of Seattle's Office of Planning and Community Development, has dedicated over 30 years to revitalizing historic landmarks and reimagining neighborhoods in his hometown. Through his passion for architecture, civic engagement, and sustainable design, Rico has been at the forefront of projects that breathe new life into Seattle’s urban fabric, ensuring that growth aligns with community values and environmental stewardship.
As a founding member of the Northwest Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, Rico has helped foster diversity and inclusion within the field. He also played a pivotal role on the AIA+2030 National Steering Committee, which brought carbon-neutral design education to 24 cities across the country, supporting the 2030 Challenge.
Rico’s leadership extends across several prominent roles, from chairing the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority to serving as President of AIA Seattle. In 2020, he delivered his first TED Talk and was recognized nationally as a “Citizen Architect” by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
His long-standing commitment to his community and profession has earned him numerous awards, including the Commercial Real Estate Leadership Award (2021), the Jennie Sue Brown Lifetime Achievement Award (2022), and the UW College of Built Environment Distinguished Alumni Award (2023).
As a founding member of the Northwest Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, Rico has helped foster diversity and inclusion within the field. He also played a pivotal role on the AIA+2030 National Steering Committee, which brought carbon-neutral design education to 24 cities across the country, supporting the 2030 Challenge.
Rico’s leadership extends across several prominent roles, from chairing the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority to serving as President of AIA Seattle. In 2020, he delivered his first TED Talk and was recognized nationally as a “Citizen Architect” by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
His long-standing commitment to his community and profession has earned him numerous awards, including the Commercial Real Estate Leadership Award (2021), the Jennie Sue Brown Lifetime Achievement Award (2022), and the UW College of Built Environment Distinguished Alumni Award (2023).
Catherine De Almeida is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. Her design research, landscape lifecycles, applies material, social, ecological, and economic lifecycles lenses to the understanding and design of waste landscapes. Her work emphasizes waste relations to illuminate the performance, visibility, citizenships, emotions, perceptions, attitudes, and injustices of waste materials and landscapes. Catherine is a certified remote drone pilot, a licensed landscape architect, a Fellow of Urban@UW, and is actively working with community groups in the Duwamish Valley to address toxic and non-toxic wastes.
Richard (Rick) F. Krochalis was the Regional Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Region 10 office in Seattle, Washington from May 2002 until he retired from federal service in June 2016. In this position, Mr. Krochalis was responsible for the administration of FTA's capital, operating and planning grant programs totaling over $700 million annually in the four-state Pacific Northwest region.
Prior to joining the FTA, Mr. Krochalis served as director of design, construction and land use for the city of Seattle for ten years.
Mr. Krochalis obtained a master’s degree from Harvard University in city and regional planning and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in environmental systems engineering. His current memberships include: the University of Washington’s College of the Built Environment Planning Professionals Council and the Urban Land Institute where he is co-Chair of the ULI NW Transit Oriented Development Council.
Aaron was born and raised in New York City and spent his childhood exploring its neighborhoods, its people, and its streets. As an artist, Aaron draws from a lifetime of exploration to promote access, increase awareness, and encourage curiosity throughout our cities. His work is fully collaborative and always public — working with community groups, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to connect people with the environments we all live in and accentuate overlooked aspects of our everyday lives — through the creation of site-specific installations, multi-disciplinary events, and documentary style films. Aaron has created installations and designed events in cities throughout the country — is the creator of Unforgotten Films, the Belltown Mural Festival, and Recharge the Battery, a founding designer for the WaterMarks Initiative, and serves as Artist in Residence with Belltown United, Untapped New York and People, Harvester Arts, People for the Pavilion — to demonstrate the power of art in helping to improve our relationships with our cities and with each other.
Paulina Lopez-Peters is an organizer, advocate, and the mother of three boys. She originally comes from Ecuador but has made Seattle her home over the past 20 years.
Paulina has over 25 years of experience working on issues of civil rights, social environmental justice, equity, education and diversity. Paulina is keenly in tune with the strengths and challenges of this community as it moves toward environmental health and social and climate justice. Paulina highly regarded organizer, facilitator, community and policy strategist, movement builder focused on building systems of power and shifting power outward to those most impacted by injustice and oppression. Developed consulting with governments, organizations, community and foundations to identify ways to shift power dynamics and develop frameworks for collaborative co- creating and transformative governance. Through this work and her leadership in social, environmental, and racial justice organizations, Paulina has developed expertise in multi-sector stakeholder engagement, networks, collaborative problem solving, and building power with BIPOC communities of color, immigrants, and refugees.
She currently serves as the Executive Director for the Duwamish River Community Coalition ( DRCC). Paulina first joined DRCC as a volunteer, advocating in her community for access to a safe, clean environment. Paulina holds a Master’s Law degree in Human Rights from St. Thomas University.
Paulina has over 25 years of experience working on issues of civil rights, social environmental justice, equity, education and diversity. Paulina is keenly in tune with the strengths and challenges of this community as it moves toward environmental health and social and climate justice. Paulina highly regarded organizer, facilitator, community and policy strategist, movement builder focused on building systems of power and shifting power outward to those most impacted by injustice and oppression. Developed consulting with governments, organizations, community and foundations to identify ways to shift power dynamics and develop frameworks for collaborative co- creating and transformative governance. Through this work and her leadership in social, environmental, and racial justice organizations, Paulina has developed expertise in multi-sector stakeholder engagement, networks, collaborative problem solving, and building power with BIPOC communities of color, immigrants, and refugees.
She currently serves as the Executive Director for the Duwamish River Community Coalition ( DRCC). Paulina first joined DRCC as a volunteer, advocating in her community for access to a safe, clean environment. Paulina holds a Master’s Law degree in Human Rights from St. Thomas University.
David Windham Goldberg is a Strategic Advisory with the Duwamish Valley Program team at Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment. David’s passion is how people and places shape each other. For over 25 years, he has led community-based plans, and capital projects in Seattle and the Puget Sound region. His focus is aligning and coordinating city actions and community initiatives to better address inequities and improve health outcomes. David has a BA from Wesleyan University, and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington.
Marshall Foster is the Director of Seattle Center, Seattle’s 74-acre cultural campus and home to more than 30 arts and cultural organizations and destinations, including the Seattle Space Needle, the Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pacific Science Center and Climate Pledge Arena. As Director Marshall oversees campus operations, programming and planning, including a $58M annual budget and 230 staff.
Prior to joining Seattle Center in January 2023, Marshall served as Director of the Seattle’s Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects (OWCP) for 9 years. OWCP leads the “Waterfront Seattle” program, which is creating 20 acres of new parks and public spaces on Seattle’s Central Waterfront with the removal of the elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Prior to the waterfront, Marshall served as the Seattle’s Planning Director from 2010-2014.
He holds a Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.
Prior to joining Seattle Center in January 2023, Marshall served as Director of the Seattle’s Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects (OWCP) for 9 years. OWCP leads the “Waterfront Seattle” program, which is creating 20 acres of new parks and public spaces on Seattle’s Central Waterfront with the removal of the elevated Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Prior to the waterfront, Marshall served as the Seattle’s Planning Director from 2010-2014.
He holds a Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.
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