360021 external_news 1420450224 1475893646 Ryan Gravel, MCRP + M.Arch '99, concieved of the Atlanta BeltLine while he was a graduate student at Georgia Tech.  The Beltline as it exists today aims to turn defunct railroad tracks into a 22-mile paved looped trail, with light-rail trains to line its circumference. Many are proclaiming that this unlikely city, with its long history of segregation and suburbanization, is on the verge of a renaissance. Already, hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment have poured into the project and the restaurants, markets and shops around it; land values are soaring; and the city Sherman once burned looks shiny and new. The makeover fervor is spreading — a new streetcar runs through central Atlanta and bike lanes are sprouting. Gravel has been a quiet presence behind the $4.8 billion BeltLine, although it still has some growing to do. Current planners estimate they will still need 17 more years to complete the project. 

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