Keynote: Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA

Leading architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, will discuss the relevance of great design to the pressing issues of our time including climate change, social justice, and the future of our communities

The urbanist world has largely formed a consensus around the idea that transit-oriented urban growth leads to positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes due to the diversity, innovation and ecology that dense walkable development is argued to bring. Cracks have begun to emerge in this consensus however as communities question the gentrification impacts of new growth, fearing that new development will exacerbate social inequity. But an undercurrent in this debate transcends economic arguments, hinging instead on whether new development reflects the local community, climate, culture and construction. 

With over thirty years of proven experience authoring and implementing visionary urban architecture, Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, is the Founder and Creative Director of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU, where he leads the firm’s growing global portfolio of cultural, institutional, and public projects including the redesign of New York’s Penn Station, the design of the FAA’s new sustainable air traffic control tower prototype, the expansion of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Indianapolis’ new multi-modal Wave Bridge, Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery, Philadelphia’s Schuylkill Yards, and Princeton’s Hobson College.

He is the author of two books: A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America (Metropolis Books, 2013), and most recently, The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy (Princeton University Press, September 2024). In 2025 he was awarded the Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Award in recognition of his visionary approach to urbanism, commitment to ecological and equitable design, and leadership in shaping the built environment.

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