GB Arrington '72

Innovation in Land Use

GB Arrington leads PB’s global transit-oriented development practice, linking major transit investments and land use planning to create more livable communities. For 20+ years, G.B. has played a key role in the Portland region’s innovative experiment to reinvent the American dream of how cities grow while enhancing their quality of life. His assignments with transit station area planning have received national awards from the White House, Progressive Architecture and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

GB was asked by the White House to organize and moderate Vice President Gore’s first Livable Communities roundtable and has served as an advisor to the Federal Transit Administration and communities from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Perth, Western Australia interested in growing smart. GB has lead three recent TOD policy studies of national significance – the Governor’s Task Force on Transit Oriented Development for Maryland, the California Statewide Study of Transit Oriented Development and the Mayor’s Special Transit-Oriented Development Task Force for Washington, D.C. GB is one of the founders of the Rail~Volution Conference and has been called “one of the nation’s leading practitioners of the New Urbanism.” He frequently writes and speaks on smart growth and transportation and has been interviewed on PBS television, National Public Radio and quoted extensively in books and articles on light rail, transit-oriented development and regional planning.

GB has managed numerous complex interdisciplinary planning projects. The strategic planning work he directed charted an award winning new direction for Portland’s transit agency. His innovative transit planning and community involvement strategies changed the face of transit in Portland’s suburbs and received a Way to Go Award! from ReNew America and the US Environmental Protection Agency.