New New Amsterdam: Would Some Giant Dutch Sea Gates Have Saved New York?

2012-11-01T11:46:00-04:00

“They really don’t treat the water in this kind of eggshell kind of way that they do in the United States,” Mr. Chakrabarti said. “They reclaim the land, use dredging material, do a whole variety of things to reshape the shoreline, like we first did when we were New Amsterdam. The Dutch have unrivaled experience in dealing with flooding. They really know how to shape the water’s edge, and I think we really have to rethink the way we deal with the water’s edge, given what’s happened with Sandy.”

Architect and planner Vishaan Charkrabarti, director of Columbia's Center for Urban Real Estate and a partner at SHoP, has a novel idea to save New York from the next big one: Build some giant sea gates around the harbor, like they have in Rotterdam. Also, a barrier island or two would be good.

Vishaan Chakrabarti Joining SHoP, Promises New Epoch of Planning

2012-03-06T12:12:00-05:00

Mr. Chakrabarti said the firm is determined to shake things up in the world of architecture, development and planning. “Most master planning, you use pretty pastel drawings that rarely have anything to do with what gets built,” he said. “Planning has been static, it hasn’t been performative. Most of these plans, they get implemented over 20 or 30 years. Think of how much a city and the world changes in that span of time.”

The former city planner, developer and current chair of Columbia's real estate development program, the Center for Urban Real Estate, joins the hotshot New York firm.

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New New Amsterdam: Would Some Giant Dutch Sea Gates Have Saved New York?

Vishaan Chakrabarti Joining SHoP, Promises New Epoch of Planning