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; Queens’ Sunnyside Yards; Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Princeton’s Hobson College; Philadelphia’s Wanamaker and first-phase Schuylkill Yards buildings; Indianapolis’ Wave Bridge; Columbus, Indiana’s InterOculus; a new City of Niagara trail system; and several air traffic control towers for the FAA.

With a background spanning industrial design, economics, and journalism, Senior 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.

For more than two decades, Mark Faulkner has practiced architecture in New York City across cultural institutions, infrastructure, public space, commercial developments, historic preservation, and housing. His work is grounded in the belief that architecture is a collective endeavor, shaped by the people, place, and moment that bring it into being. Since joining PAU in 2018, he has led major projects including Schuylkill Yards in Philadelphia, the expansion of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the redesign of New York City’s sidewalk sheds, and planning and design efforts in Detroit, Indianapolis, Columbus, and New York City.

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.

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.

Kutay Biberoğlu 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.

Maria Alataris is the 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.

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 holds a Master’s in Advanced Architectural Design from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Ball State University. At PAU, he has worked on projects including InterOculus in Columbus, the expansion of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and New York City’s Sidewalk Shed redesign. Prior to joining PAU, he worked at Pelli Clarke & Partners on large-scale commercial projects in the United States and the Netherlands.

Hans is an architectural designer and Senior Associate at PAU. He has earned a Master of Science degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia GSAPP where he was awarded the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Award from Columbia GSAPP for outstanding design studio recognition for his project “Self-Aware House,”, and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from NJIT, where he received the CoAD Comprehensive Studio Award at NJIT for most outstanding graduating project.

He has 9 years of experience working on a ranging scale of projects and programs throughout New York City, such as private luxury residences, offices, an arts foundation, and a private club. Before joining PAU, he spent 6 years at O’Neill Rose Architects as Senior Project Manager.

Hans has also received recognition for the architectural drawing “Here Everywhere,” which was awarded the Archisource 2020 Drawing of The Year Narrative award, and shortlisted for Architizer’s 2020 One Drawing Challenge. He has also received recognition for the project “Hundred House,” which was longlisted for Volume Zero’s 2020 Tiny House competition.

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.