Interview with Vishaan Chakrabarti

Abstract

Vishaan Chakrabarti holds a double undergraduate degree in Art History and Engineering from Cornell University, USA. In addition, he holds a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master in Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. With over twenty years of proven experience authoring and implementing visionary design, Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU). Simultaneously, he is a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he teaches design and urbanism. Recently, Chakrabarti was named the William W. Wurster Dean of the College of Environmental Design
at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he will assume in July 2020. PAU’s projects include designs for comprehensive new communities in East New York, Philadelphia, the Domino Sugar Refinery, Newark, Detroit, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, as well as a master plan vision for Sunnyside Yards in Queens. PAU’s Penn Palimpsest project imagines creating a light-filled public commons by recycling the foundations and superstructure of Madison Square Garden to renew Penn Station and its surrounds. While serving under Mayor Michael Bloomberg as the director of the Manhattan Office for the New York Department of City Planning, Vishaan successfully collaborated with the now-realized efforts to save the High Line, rezone Hudson Yards, extend the #7 subway line, rebuild the East River Waterfront, expand the Columbia University campus, and reincorporate the street grid at the World Trade Center site after the events of 9/11. He serves on the boards of the Architectural League of New York, the Regional Planning Association, and the Citizens Budget Commission. Vishaan has received a CACF Catalyst for Change Award and is a former Crain’s “40 Under 40” and David Rockefeller Fellow.