Moynihan Station venture president dubbed “Professor Skyscraper”

Vishaan Chakrabarti is a busy man. Between taking on his new post as the director of the real estate development program at Columbia University’s architecture and planning school, and reminding everyone, repeatedly, that New Yorkers should be embarrassed by the sad state of Penn Station, the Observer has dubbed him “Professor Skyscraper.” Chakrabarti, president of the Moynihan Station Venture, a joint project of Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust, is considered by some a pioneer of the Far West Side. According to Anna Levin, a City Planning commissioner, Chakrabarti has made one smart move that some developers overlook: he’s ingratiated himself with the Far West Side’s Community Board 4. “He’s very well thought of out here in the CB4 community,” Levin said. “He was always accessible; he was always thinking.”