Vishaan Chakrabarti (born March 29, 1966) is an American architect and professor. He is the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), which is an architecture firm based in New York. In 2018 he was named a fellow of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

. For a period of one year, from July 2020 to September 2021, Chakrabarti served as the Dean at the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley.

Early life and education

Chakrabarti was born in Calcutta, India in 1966. His family moved to the United States in 1968 when he was two years old. His undergraduate education was completed at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

where he holds dual bachelor's degrees in Art History and Engineering. Chakrabarti attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he received his Master of Architecture degree, and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

where he received a Master of City Planning degree.

Career

He began his career at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LP in New York where he worked as an Associate Partner and Director of Urban Design. In 2003 Chakrabarti was named Director of the Manhattan Office of the New York Department of City Planning under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Shortly after this in 2005 he served as the President of Moynihan Station Venture at the Related Companies. In 2009 he was named the Marc Holliday Professor and Director of the Master of Science in Real Estate Development program at Columbia's GSAPP. Then in 2011 he became the founding director of the Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE). From 2012 until 2015, Chakrabarti was a partner at

SHoP Architects SHoP Architects is an architecture firm in Lower Manhattan, New York City, with projects located on five continents. Led by four principals, the firm provides services to residences, commercial buildings, schools and cultural institutions, as wel ...

. After leaving SHop in 2015, Chakrabarti founded PAU (Practice for Architecture and Urbanism), through which he has been involved in projects such as the master plan for the site occupied by the rail yards in

Sunnyside, Queens Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It shares borders with Hunters Point and Long Island City to the west, Astoria to the north, Woodside to the east and Maspeth to the south. It contains ...

; the design for the adaptive reuse of the

Domino Sugar Refinery The Domino Sugar Refinery is a mixed-use development and former sugar refinery in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City, along the East River. When active as a refinery, it was operated by the Havemeyer family's Ame ...

in Brooklyn; and Penn Palimpsest, a proposal for reimagining New York’s

Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...

. Chakrabarti assumed the deanship of the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, in 2020. In September 2021 he announced he was stepping down as dean after 1 year, citing family health issues. Chakrabarti is an alumnus of CED’s graduate architecture program and previously served as a member of the College’
Dean’s Advisory Council

Publications

* 2013: ''A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America'' * 2013: ''NYC 2040: Housing the Next One Million New Yorkers''

Awards and recognition

Chakrabarti was elected to the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows in 2018 and was named an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) is a not-for-profit, national organization that has represented architects and architecture for over 100 years, in existence since 1907. The RAIC is the leading voice for excellence in the built ...

(RAIC) in 2019.

References

External links

PAU (Practice for Architecture and Urbanism), official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chakrabarti, Vishaan 20th-century American architects 1966 births Living people Fellows of the American Institute of Architects People from Kolkata Cornell University alumni UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni 21st-century American architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill people