With over thirty years of experience investigating, designing, and implementing urban architecture, Vishaan Chakrabarti is a registered architect and 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 and also serves as the Thomas J. Baird Visiting Critic, Architecture at Cornell AAP. Chakrabarti’s past roles—including Principal at architecture firms SHoP Architects and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, President of the Moynihan Station Venture at the Related Companies, Director of the Manhattan Office for the New York Department of City Planning in the Bloomberg administration, and the William W. Wurster Dean of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley—have given him a uniquely well-rounded perspective on how cities and their architecture function and what they need to flourish. 

While serving under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chakrabarti successfully collaborated on the now-realized efforts to save the High Line, extend the #7 subway line, rebuild the East River Waterfront, expand the Columbia University campus, and reincorporate the street grid at the World Trade Center site after the events of 9/11. This deep-seated experience of implementing landmark urban designs under bureaucratic confines drives PAU’s innovative yet practical approach to creating vibrant, resilient, and cross-cultural urban environments that uplift the experience of everyday people. 

PAU’s process begins with a search for emotional, social, and cultural connection, which inspires bespoke design solutions that deploy material, tectonics, light, and space to foster a sense of serendipity and community. Integral to PAU’s philosophy is developing a robust understanding of the daily lives of a diverse spectrum of urban dwellers, allowing the team to create multi-functional spaces that stimulate civic delight, promote environmental justice and cross-cultural pollination, and improve how people interact with the city and with each other. Current projects of note include the expansion of the I.M. Pei-designed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the planning and redevelopment of downtown Niagara Falls, and the conversion of the historic Domino Sugar Factory on Brooklyn’s waterfront into a contemporary office complex, to open this summer. 

Chakrabarti is the author of the highly acclaimed book, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America (Metropolis Books, 2013), and The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy (2024, Princeton University Press). He taught at Columbia for more than a decade and serves on the boards of the Architectural League of New York, the Regional Planning Association, the Norman Foster Foundation, The World Around and Prometheus Materials. Chakrabarti has degrees in architecture, urban planning, art history, and engineering. He was named the 2025 Edmund N. Bacon honoree for his visionary contributions to urban design and education. 

With a background spanning industrial design, economics, and journalism, Principal and registered architect Ruchika Modi brings a multifaceted understanding of the ways in which cities function to her architectural practice. Modi’s experiences living and working in Mumbai (then Bombay), New Delhi, and San Francisco have also influenced her nuanced view of urban planning and design, inspiring her passion to find architectural solutions to a range of relevant issues, from sustainability to inequality. At PAU, Modi sets the firm’s vision in partnership with Creative Director Vishaan Chakrabarti, including shaping the firm’s diverse portfolio of projects, and overseeing all aspects of the design process. 

Currently, Modi is leading the design team for the FAA’s new sustainable airport traffic control tower prototype, which will be adapted to replace over 100 aging towers in regional and municipal airports across the nation. She is also project lead for Princeton University’s newest residential college, Hobson College, as well as for the master plan and design of forty-one buildings as part of a new mixed-use development in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She spearheaded the design of the iconic Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, an adaptive reuse project transforming the historic nineteenth-century factory into offices with a mixed-use ground level, opening in the fall of 2023. 

Prior to joining PAU, Modi was a Senior Associate at Standard Architects and a founding partner of Studio r&star, both in New York City. She has also worked at Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where she was awarded the Charles McKim Prize for Excellence in Design / Saul Kaplan Traveling Fellowship, the William Kinne Fellows Prize for Study and Travel Abroad, and the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Prize. Modi received her BA in economics from the University of Delhi and a BA with distinction in interior architecture from the California College of Arts, San Francisco. Her work has been exhibited at the Center for Architecture in New York, the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, and the China International Architectural Biennale in Beijing.

Bryan Dorsey is a Principal, Director of Operations at PAU. He brings a wide array of architecture and design administrative experience to PAU from previous positions at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; DIFFA; Peter Marino Architect; and SHoP Architects. He served in Senior Operations Support and Business Development at Société Générale de Surveillance, where he assisted in the development of new contract standards and firm-wide office protocols at offices in New York City, Houston, and Antwerp, Belgium. Bryan holds a BA from the University of Nebraska.

For twenty years, Mark Faulkner has practiced architecture in New York City, working across cultural institutions, infrastructure, public space, commercial, historic preservation, and housing. That experience has shaped a belief: that when the collaborative minds come together at a specific place and time, what they build is an irreplaceable product of our highest shared values.

Mark joined PAU in 2018. He led Schuylkill Yards in Philadelphia, 1.5 million square feet across two towers of mixed-use development adjacent to 30th Street Station, 92% office leased and 98% residential occupied since phase one opened. Since 2020 he has led the expansion of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, building upon I.M. Pei’s iconic pyramid, with the project opening later this year. He managed InterOculus in Columbus, Indiana, a dome pavilion built over an active intersection, from design through construction. He is project manager for the interior renovation of Christie’s New York galleries and salesroom at Rockefeller Center. He led the Wave Bridge in Indianapolis and the Michigan Central planning effort for Ford Motor Company in Detroit. For the past two years he has led the redesign of New York City’s sidewalk sheds for the Department of Buildings, reshaping a fixture of daily life for every New Yorker. He works as design thinker, project manager, and mentor, guiding projects and people from concept through construction.

Mark received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and a Master of Architecture from the Cooper Union in New York City on a full-tuition scholarship, with both programs grounded in the discipline of drawing as a way of thinking, and the city as the studio. He continued his education in fine art at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington, DC, and completed the Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders program at Yale University.

At the start of his New York career, Mark spent over a decade at Standard Architects in Brooklyn, developing fluency in craft, detail, and assembly across high-end residential, infrastructure, commercial, and hospitality projects. He was part of the architect of record team on Little Island in the Hudson River, and as project manager on R/GA headquarters and the Jewish Community Center of Bensonhurst. From bespoke interiors to civic infrastructure on an urban scale, his work has spanned the full range of what architecture demands.

That range took shape in his earlier years in the Philadelphia and Washington DC areas, beginning with hand-drafted construction documents and running blueprints. He worked across residential, historic, civic, and spiritual projects, from local courthouses to a royal palace in Bhutan.

Mark is honored by the people who made him. His father ran an antique restoration shop and later became a teacher; his mother was a public librarian, instilling in him a belief in preservation, craft, and the value of knowledge passed on. His grandparents served in the war and came of age through the Depression, and from them he inherited resolve, civic duty, and frugality. Quaker roots, the rank of Eagle Scout, and the supportive communities surrounding them cultivated a lifelong practice of simplicity and service. Those people, their lives, and some hard-wired desire to build and invent, led him to architecture.

That trajectory, from family through school and craft and two decades of practice, has found its place at PAU, where Mark works alongside colleagues he holds in the highest regard, united in the belief that design is a civic act and that the work they make together should be purposeful, lasting, and beautiful.

Julia Lewis is a Principal, Chief Financial Officer at PAU. A member of the senior leadership team, she is responsible for financial controls, business development oversight, and management of large-scale, public-sector projects. She utilizes her background in architecture, real estate development, and historic preservation and experience with city-scale planning to approach challenges and propose solutions within the built environment in a comprehensive manner.

Before joining PAU, Julia was part of the Cities team at BuroHappold Engineering, where she worked on a variety of projects ranging from building- to city-scale for public, private, and non-profit clients. Julia earned a Master of Real Estate Development and a Master of Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a BA in architecture with a minor in business administration from Clemson University. At Columbia she was awarded the William Kinne Fellows Prize for Study and Travel Abroad and the M.S. RED Program Service Award for Outstanding Service to the School. Julia serves on the executive board of MSRED Alumni Inc.

Kutay Biberoglu is an Associate Principal at PAU. He earned a Master of Architecture degree from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where he was awarded the Honor Award for Excellence in Design, as well as the William Kinne Fellows Prize for Study and Travel Abroad. His graduate thesis portfolio focused on the political, scalar, environmental, and social implications of built infrastructure in cities. Kutay also holds a Bachelor in Architecture with honors from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.

Mateo Fernández-Muro is an Associate Principal, Director of Visualization at PAU. He has collaborated with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and worked with WE ACT for Environmental Justice to develop a community plan for climate resilience in northern Manhattan, as well as with the offices of Álvaro Siza and Rubio & Álvarez-Sala on the development of significant urban design projects. Mateo holds a Master of Science in design and urban ecologies from the Parsons School of Design and a Master in Advanced Architectural Projects, with honors, from ETSA Madrid. His award-winning research was exhibited in the Spanish pavilion of the XVI Venice Biennale of Architecture.

Junxi Wu is an Associate Principal, Director of Urban Designe at PAU. He received his Master of Urban Design degree from Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. His thesis focused on reclaiming the public realm in the largely privatized urban core of Detroit. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree, with a concentration in urban design, from South China University of Technology.

Courtney is an architectural designer from Tasmania, Australia, and a Senior Associate at PAU. She leads the design of the historic Wanamaker Building in Philadelphia, overseeing the refurbishment of its ground-floor retail, and contributes to the design of a confidential gallery space in New York City.

She brings nine years of experience across education, healthcare, and multifamily residential projects in Melbourne and New York City. Prior to joining PAU, she worked at Rockwell Group as a project lead and at Architectus as a designer.

She holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Melbourne (MSD), where she was awarded the Bilson Prize for “Graduate with the Most Promise.” At MSD, she curated exhibitions including MOTEL, featuring the work of Australian architect Robin Boyd. She also undertook a work placement at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, contributing to the exhibition The Future Starts Here.

Agustín Ludeña is a Senior Associate at PAU and a registered Architect in Spain from the Madrid School of Architecture (UPM-ETSAM), where he also collaborated as fellow of the Architectural Design Department and as Assistant Teacher at Federico Soriano’s Design Studio. He worked at estudioHerreros in Madrid before moving to New York City and joining PAU. His work and research projects have been featured on several platforms and in media including the Spanish Pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale of Architecture (2018), Architecture Magazine, the Madrid Chamber of Architects (COAM), the curatorial participations on Models 2 (Fisuras de la cultura contemporánea), and 100 years of Architecture Magazine (COAM).

Jonghoon Park is a registered architect and a Senior Associate at PAU. Before joining the firm, he spent several years at Alloy, where he led pre-design, entitlements, and ULURP community engagement for a 1.7-million-square-foot mixed-use master plan in Brooklyn, while drawing on his background in finance to support acquisitions and capital raising.

His earlier work includes the design of a 480-unit ground-up multifamily building in Chelsea with COOKFOX and, during his tenure at WeWork, the creation of a global workplace playbook for Fortune 500 companies and its application in the design and delivery of their offices in Seoul and Detroit.

Jonghoon holds a dual Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, with a minor in City and Regional Planning, from UC Berkeley. He is a LEED AP BD+C.

Eric Peters is a registered architect and Senior Associate at PAU. He earned a Master’s in Advanced Architectural Design from Cornell University and holds a Bachelor of Architecture with a minor in Interior Design from Ball State University.

At PAU, Eric has contributed to a range of projects, including InterOculus in Columbus, Indiana; the major expansion of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and New York City’s redesign of Sidewalk Sheds. Prior to joining PAU, he worked at Pelli Clarke & Partners, where he was involved in large-scale commercial projects across the United States and the Netherlands, including a net-zero corporate headquarters.

Eric’s academic work centers on placemaking and storytelling through design. His graduate thesis, Architecture as Advocate, explores the political power of minority representation in the built environment. His work has been recognized with awards from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and the Indiana Architectural Foundation, and he was named Ball State University College of Architecture’s “Graduate of the Last Decade.” His work has also been featured in The New York Times, Dezeen, and other publications. At Cornell, he received the AAP Director’s Award and served as a Graduate Teaching Research Specialist.

During his time at Ball State, Eric was editor-in-chief of three issues of the architecture journal GLUE. At Cornell, he co-authored Sink or Swim: A Guide of Design Strategies to Confront Sea Level Rise on the East Coast.

Nicolás is a registered architect in Chile and a Senior Associate at PAU. He earned his Master of Architecture from the IIT Chicago Graduate School of Architecture. His thesis project, “Architecture as a Communicator of Values and Identity: Spaces for Public Safety and Community Benefit”, consisted of an urban strategy that seeks to save neighborhoods dominated by drug trafficking and violence. Nicolás’ experience in architecture and urban design includes projects such as the Oceanographic Museum in Valparaiso, Manhattan West in New York City, and the new O’Hare Global Terminal in Chicago.

Felix is a licensed architect in New York. Committed to excellence in public architecture, he was instrumental in PAU’s award-winning design of the FAA’s next generation of Airport Traffic Control Towers—a prototype implemented in municipal airports nationwide—as well as in several other civic and institutional projects. Before joining PAU, Felix has worked on a range of mixed use, multi-family residential, and higher education projects.

Felix earned his BA in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University’s School of Architecture. His graduate thesis, Stages for Democracy, examines the concept of democratic spaces and proposes an expansion to Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan complex. Felix’s work has been exhibited at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin (2019).

In 2022, Felix received an Honorable Mention in Arch Out Loud’s White House Competition; he has also earned several awards for his essays. In 2023, he was included in METROPOLIS’s inaugural Arch30 cohort, which recognizes the next generation of top talent in architecture.

Maria Alataris is the Administrative Director at PAU. She has over twenty years of global experience in the field. A registered architect, she has worked on a wide range of architecture and design projects for Richard Meier & Partners; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut and Kuhn; and Asahi Juken. Maria graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Architecture degree and received the Juris Janson Memorial Prize for Excellence in Design.