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Who

Tschumi is the brainy architect who formerly headed the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, and the man behind the highly conspicuous Lower East Side building, Blue.

Backstory

Swiss-born Tschumi spent his early years as a theorist and academic, teaching in London before moving to New York in the late 1970s. His reputation was minted in 1983 when he won a competition to design the $300 million, 125-acre Parc de la Villette on the outskirts of Paris. Although construction dragged on for almost a decade, the high-profile project earned him critical acclaim and in 1988, Tschumi was named dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture. But despite his impressive academic reputation, his resume was noticeably short on real-world experience; to eliminate the embarrassing technicality that he had never actually built a building, Columbia commissioned him to design a student center on campus, Alfred Lerner Hall. When it finally opened its doors in 1999, the building met with a chilly reception from the architectural community. (To this day it elicits grumbling from Columbia students, who complain that it's annoyingly maze-like.) Tschumi departed Columbia in 2003 to focus on his private practice.

Of note

Tschumi's worked on a number of high-profile commissions in recent years. In 2006, he completed Blue, his first-ever residential project. The Lower East Side building drew attention for its incongruous height (it's 16 stories) and its color (it's intensely blue) more than anything else. He's now finishing up work on Athens's New Acropolis Museum—he beat out fellow New York starchitect Daniel Libeskind to get the job—which will house the fabled Elgin Marbles.

In print

The intellectualism-prone architect has written several books on architectural theory, including Architecture and Disjunction in 1996 and Event-Cities 3 in 2005.

The look

Tschumi may have designed Blue, but judging from his wardrobe, his favorite color is red. He always wears a bright red scarf. Another noteworthy Tschumi fashion tic: his sunglasses, which he wears night and day, rain or shine.

Personal

Tschumi's wife, Katie Linker, is an art critic and author. They have two children: Ariane, a Harvard student, and Alex, a high school student. Tschumi spends about half the year at his loft in Chelsea, and the other half at his home in Paris.