Keynote Speaker | Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA FRAIC
Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, author, urbanist, and public thought leader. He is the founder and creative director of PAU | Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, a Manhattan-based architecture firm dedicated to building ecological, equitable and joyous communities.
As a licensed practitioner across the United States, which he has traversed by camper numerous times, Chakrabarti leads the studio’s cultural, institutional, commercial, and infrastructure work including New York’s Pennsylvania Station—a civic endeavor he has doggedly pursued for decades—Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery, Queen’s Sunnyside Yards, Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Princeton’s Hobson College, Philadelphia’s Wanamaker and first phase Schuylkill Yard Buildings, Indianapolis’ Wave Bride, Columbus Indiana’s InterOculus, a new City of Niagara trail system, and several air traffic control towers for the FAA.
His past positions include principal roles at leading global architecture firms; teaching at Cornell and Columbia Universities; and serving as the William Wurster Dean at U.C. Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. As Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s director of planning for Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11, Chakrabarti helped to reimagine the High Line, rebuild the World Trade Center, extend the #7 subway line, and revitalize the borough’s waterfronts.
Chakrabarti is the author of two books: A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America (Metropolis Books, 2013), and The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy (Princeton University Press, September 2024). He is a contributor to the New York Times Op Ed page, Vital City, Air Mail, and other notable publications, and has been a guest on Fareed Zakaria GPS, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, the Charlie Rose Show and multiple broadcast networks. Chakrabarti serves on numerous non-profit boards including The World Around and the Regional Plan Association, and has been appointed by Lord Norman Foster to be a trustee of the The Norman Foster Foundation. Under his direction, PAU’s work has been awarded the Miller Prize, the American Architecture Award, the A+ Award, and the MAS MASterworks Award. In 2025 Chakrabarti received the Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Award in recognition of his visionary
