Chancellor Carol Christ and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Alivisatos issued the following message :
We are very pleased to announce that Vishaan Chakrabarti, celebrated architect and associate professor of professional practice at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), has accepted our offer to become the next dean of the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design (CED).
A graduate of CED’s architecture program and member of the college’s Dean’s Advisory Council, Professor Chakrabarti is well known to many in the Berkeley design community. He has dedicated his long career as an architect and urban planner to social impact through the improvement of cities’ public spaces, most recently as the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, the studio he established in 2015 and will continue to lead as dean. Professor Chakrabarti has directed projects as varied as a multi-billion dollar public-private partnership to redevelop New York’s Pennsylvania Station, the adaptive reuse of the landmark Domino Sugar Refinery and park in Brooklyn, and the design of a mixed-use village and bazaar in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Outside of private practice, he served as director of the Manhattan office of New York’s Department of City Planning from 2002 to 2005, overseeing planning and development for the borough during the critical period of rebuilding that followed the September 11th terrorist attacks. In his time there, he also helped lay the groundwork for the city’s acclaimed High Line park and a major expansion of Columbia University.
Vishaan Chakrabarti spoke about his vision for “magnetic, lyrical” cities in this 2018 TED Talk.