Vishaan Chakrabarti, Director of Columbia Center for Urban Real Estate, will join SHoP Architects as its seventh partner – and only the second partner not related to the firm’s founders by blood or marriage. Chakrabarti’s expertise with large scale urban development projects will allow the firm to expand their urban reach, invigorating their “think-tank” approach to confront larger architectural problems that respond to global issues. “We are thrilled to have Vishaan join the firm. His background and depth of experience allow SHoP to add expertise to our bench while continuing our firm-wide focus on both planning and building,” said William Sharples, SHoP Partner. “Our interests extend beyond building beautiful skyscrapers, museums, university buildings and airport terminals. We want to build in such a way that our buildings give back to our cities and to our clients through use of public space, density, sustainability, and innovative construction methods.”
More about SHoP’s new partner after the break.
It is no doubt that both parties will benefit from the skills and the curiosities of the other. SHoP’s evolution as a firm continues to challenge the accepted convention, and in recent years, SHoP’s interest in the public realm has been steadily increasing from their involvement with the East River Esplanade, the redevelopment of the South Street Seaport, and Atlantic Yards. Add to that mix Chakrabarti’s experimental planning visions (CURE’s main research project, LoLo, proposes a plan to use landfill to connect Governors Island to the Battery), and this young think tank will grow to a power house of urban ideas and experiments quite quickly.
“It is an honor and a thrill for me to join SHoP Architects, a firm that since its inception has redefined practice, and is now poised to design and build some of the most significant large-scale projects in the world,” said Vishaan Chakrabarti. “In the urban age that is upon us, we need the very best practitioners and I have long believed that SHoP offers to New York and the world an unsurpassed 21st Century vision of design and technology.”
Both parties bring big ideas to the table and we are excited to see the what their teamwork can do toward “reinventing urbanism”.
Sources: Archpaper, and The Observer
