Rahul Mehrotra Appointed Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design
Rahul Mehrotra Appointed Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Rahul Mehrotra as tenured Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design.

“I am especially pleased to have Rahul join our school’s leadership at a time when the GSD and Harvard as a whole are strengthening their global engagement,” said Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design. “His inspired work internationally as a teacher, practitioner, researcher, and community advocate makes him exceptionally qualified to contribute to the GSD’s growing involvement with the challenges of urbanism around the world.”

Mehrotra, an internationally recognized architect, urban designer, and educator, arrives at the GSD to lead the Department of Urban Planning and Design, where urban design was first established as a clearly articulated academic discipline. This fall, the program celebrates its fiftieth anniversary as it assesses the state of the field and projects its future direction at this critical time for cities around the globe.

At Harvard, an enhanced commitment to international engagement positions Mehrotra to play a particularly significant role, according to Jorge Domínguez, Harvard’s Vice Provost for International Affairs. “The GSD and the University at large will benefit from Rahul’s extensive experience and informed perspective on South Asian urbanism. Research and teaching are greatly strengthened by the presence of faculty with such international reach.”

Harvard’s South Asia Initiative has invited him to be part of their steering committee as they define new areas of engagement in the region. Mehrotra will speak at the forthcoming Design and Informal Cities conference in Mumbai, for which the SAI is one of the partners.

At the GSD, Mehrotra will teach studios and seminars on architecture and urbanization in India, and work with students on research projects related to infrastructure, historic preservation, and questions of rapid growth and extreme urban conditions in South Asia.

He has long been actively involved in civic and urban affairs in Mumbai, having served on commissions on historic conservation and environmental issues, with various neighborhood and citizens groups, and, from 1994 to 2004, as Executive Director of the Urban Design Research Institute. This work, and his participation with both conservation and master planning projects in Mumbai, aligns closely with the GSD’s increasing focus on design issues at varied scales throughout the world.

Mehrotra studied at the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad, and graduated with a master’s degree in Urban Design from the GSD. He has taught at the University of Michigan (2003–2007) and at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at MIT (2007–2010).

Mehrotra has written and lectured extensively on issues to do with architecture, conservation, and urban planning in Mumbai and elsewhere in India. His writings include co-authoring the book Bombay—The Cities Within, which covers the city’s urban history from the 1600s to the present; Banganga—Sacred Tank; Public Places Bombay; Anchoring a City Line, a history of the city’s commuter railway; and Bombay to Mumbai—Changing Perspectives. He has also co-authored Conserving an Image Center—The Fort Precinct in Bombay; based on this study and its recommendations, the historic Fort area in Mumbai was declared a conservation precinct in 1995—the first such designation in India. His other publications include books on the Victoria Terminus Station, a World Heritage Site, in Mumbai; on the impact of conservation legislation there; and most recently, on that city’s Art Deco buildings. In 2000, he edited a book for the UIA that marks the end of the century and is titled The Architecture of the Twentieth Century in the South Asian Region. Mehrotra has also edited the first of the three books that document the 2004 Michigan Debates on Urbanism.