In this live virtual conversation, OHNY executive director Gregory Wessner and Vishaan Chakrabarti discussed density. Vishaan Chakrabarti is the Founder and Creative Director of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, and the incoming William W. Wurster Dean of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.

Chakrabarti’s acclaimed book, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America (Metropolis Books, 2013), argues that a more urban United States would result in a more prosperous, sustainable, joyous, and socially mobile nation. This conversation will explore why current fears about density are misplaced, and what we should be thinking about as we begin to shape New York’s future.

AIA CES: 1 LU | HSW

Open House New York’s Conversations on the City offers diverse perspectives on the issues defining New York’s recovery, resilience, and reopening in the aftermath of COVID-19. The series was launched at the onset of the pandemic in April 2020 amid a moment of uncertainty about the future of urban life, ultimately drawing together an audience of 10,000 over the subsequent months. Organized around a broad theme or topic, the series has a point of view: urban life brings an abiding joy. What makes cities continue to thrive, what propels them forward, is a shared need for human connection; this is what cities make possible and it will always prevail over whatever challenges may arise.