Jay Chatterjee attended the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India, from 1953-1958, where he obtained a BArch. Hons, before travelling to the UK and enrolling at the Architectural Association, London, where he attended the Department of Tropical Architecture’s six-month, post-graduate course. He graduated with a certificate in Tropical Architecture in 1959 and then transferred to the University of North Carolina, where he took a Masters degree in Regional Planning, followed by a MArch. in Urban Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design (1963-1965). In 1967 Chatterjee was employed as an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was appointed as Director of the School of Planning, in 1977. Five years later he took the position of Dean of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, a role he was to hold until 2001. Subsequently, he served as the Interim Director of the School of Architecture and Interior Design from 2009-2010, retiring in that year, as Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Planning.
Jay Chatterjee’s was responsible for transforming architectural and planning education and environment at the University of Cincinnati. He was the guiding figure behind the merging of four distinct urban planning programs to form a new School of Planning, of which he was the first Director. Later, in his role as Dean, he formulated and implemented a major academic and organisational restructuring which involved the combining of nine departments into four schools. Alongside such changes, he was the driving force behind an astonishing remodelling and landscaping of the campus, involving the commissioning of major architects, including Peter Eisenman (Aronoff Center for Design and Art, 1988-1996), Michael Graves (Engineering Research Centre, 1994-95) and Thom Mayne (Student Recreation Center, 2000). Chatterjee’s influence, as a patron, was not limited to the university campus and he also played a significant role in bringing Cesar Pelli to design Cincinnatti’s downtown Aronoff Center for the Arts (1995), and also Zaha Hadid, with her Contemporary Art Centre opening in 2003.
Chatterjee also served as the president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (1982-84) and was a founder and co-editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research. He contributed numerous chapters, articles and papers at international conferences and symposia and has received many major awards, including the American Institute of Architects’ Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture.
Sources
- Architectural Association Council Minutes Books, 23rd February, 1959, p317, AA Archives
- Architectural Association Membership List, 1961
- University of Cincinnati Research Directory, ‘Jay Chatterjee, MArch, MRP, FAICP, Dean Emeritus, Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Planning’. Accessed 13th April, 2025; https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/chatteja
- UC History Lab, ‘Transcript of Interview with Jay Chatterjee by JJ Wandikbo’, 8th January, 2019. Accessed 13th April, 2025; https://uchistorylab.com/emeriti/wp-content/uploads/chatterjee_jay_transcript_2019-08-01.pdf
Linkedin profile, ‘Jay Chatterjee: Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Planning’, Accessed 13th April, 2025; https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-chatterjee-b218599/
