From the proposed recycling of the shell of Madison Square Garden into a new train hall for Pennsylvania Station in New York City to turning the Domino Sugar Factory on Brooklyn’s waterfront into a viable commercial space, architect Vishaan Chakrabarti, with roots in Kolkata and Murshidabad, is transforming the skyline of New York.
How does a Bengali from Kolkata make his way into the overwhelmingly white world of architecture in the US? How does a brown man, with no family connections in his industry, not only survive but thrive in a field where the representation of his kind is “zero”?
“You fight and you make your own seat at the table, since nobody’s going to give it to you,” responds Vishaan Chakrabarti, 57, one of the most transformative and versatile architects in the US. Having moved from Kolkata to the US as a two-year-old with his parents and sister, with just $32 to spare as a family, Chakrabarti has grown to someone who has shaped the look and feel of today’s Ne...