Christopher Calott, AIA
Over more than three decades, Christopher Calott, AIA has been committed to building communities and delivering projects which make cities more beautiful and inclusive. As an award-winning architect, urban designer, real estate developer, and academic, his practice is uniquely interdisciplinary. Chris is constantly seeking to work, collaborate and consult with people, communities, and enterprises who are design-focused, and want to make a difference.
He is the inaugural Lalanne Chair in Real Estate Development, Architecture & Urbanism at UC Berkeley, and the founding Faculty Director of the Master of Real Estate Development + Design Program, which he launched in 2018. He is also the Vice Chair of the Master of Urban Design Program at Berkeley, where he instructs on urban design practice, theory, and large-scale urban redevelopment. Prior to Berkeley, Calott was the Director of the Master of Sustainable Real Estate Development Program at Tulane University, working in post-Katrina New Orleans. He has pursued significant research in the areas of urbanism, housing, informal settlements, and social infrastructures through invited academic appointments at numerous universities throughout the United States, Mexico, Latin America, and Italy. And, most recently, Chris was awarded an Affiliated Artist and Scholar in residency at the American Academy in Rome, to research 20th-century Roman social housing and urbanism.
In his current professional practice, Calott consults with real estate developers and municipalities to implement design and development strategies which create more vibrant and resilient communities. Focused on disinvested communities, he assisted in the design and entitlement of 3.5 acres of mixed-income infill housing as part of a major 50-acre redevelopment project, now nearing construction, and is guiding the design and entitlement of a new 6-acre mixed-use Town Center development, both in a majority-minority community in the heart of Silicon Valley. Chris has also organized large Master Plan Competitions for real estate developers, selecting many of the world’s best architecture/urban design firms to realize their project’s design and community impact potential. Recently, in the Washington, DC area, he has consulted with a minority-owned affordable housing development group on site acquisition and design, and with a private developer on the design and redevelopment of a riverfront motor court destination resort in Virginia’s nearby scenic Shenandoah Valley. And, as a consultant for the Mayor’s Institute on City Design, Calott has advised the Mayors of Fresno and Santa Ana, California, and Rochester, New York on urban redevelopment projects, and has recently supported the Portland Parks and Recreation Department in conducting a design workshop and competition for the redevelopment of Downtown Portland’s derelict O’ Bryant Square.
Formerly, he was a founding principal of CALOTT + GIFFORD Architecture / Urban Design, and founding partner of the real estate development firm INFILL SOLUTIONS: Innovative Urban Design and Development, based in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. For over 15 years his two firms worked together to design and develop innovative mixed-use infill developments, affordable housing, historic adaptive re-use projects, and vibrant public community spaces, recognized with over 65 Regional and National Design Awards. Calott began his career as a Lead Project Designer in Antoine Predock Architect's office in Albuquerque, where he led the design of a number of International Competition winning projects, including the Classroom, Laboratory and Administrative complex at Cal Poly, Pomona, the United States World’s Fair Pavilion in Seville, Spain, and the Palm Bay New Town & Convention Center for the King of Morocco, in Agadir, Morocco. Later, he established and led Mr. Predock's Los Angeles office, completing projects on several UC California campuses, for the Disney Development Company in Orlando, Florida and Paris, France, and the City of Thousand Oaks Civic Center.
Calott is regularly called upon to contribute his practical expertise on housing, urban design, and redevelopment, notably as a frequent Urban Land Institute (ULI) Advisory Services Specialist. In recent years, Calott has served on ULI Panels providing recovery and resilience strategies for the municipality of Toa Baja, in post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico; prepared a report for Sonoma County, California assessing land use, development, and local energy grid strategies in the face of increasing California wildfire events; and, supported infill residential densities in Washington, D.C.’s suburbs. Calott also joined the ULI Curtis Infrastructure Initiative’s national task force seeking to guide new Federal infrastructure-targeted expenditures. He has served three times on a Technical Resource Team for the National Mayor’s Institute on City Design, and is presently helping to pilot a new Alumni Assistance and Advising Program, helping mayors across the country in addressing their complex urban challenges. And, for many years, Calott has devoted his talent, time, and service to several non-profit boards addressing affordable housing, youth empowerment, and local planning and governance issues.
Calott received a BA, with Honors, in Urban Theory & Design from Brown University, a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. He was awarded a mid-career Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, in recognition of his design and development practice in service of building communities, and was recently elected to the Loeb Fellowship Alumni Council.
ARCH 209/RDEV 290: Architect Developer: Small-Scale Real Estate Development Design Seminar
Loeb Fellowship, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
Sonoma County, California: Wildfire, Energy, and Economic Resilience, ULI Advisory Services Panel Report, published by Urban Land Institute, Washington, DC, 2021.
Toa Baja, Puerto Rico: Building Physical, Economic, and Social Resilience, ULI Advisory Services Panel Report, published by Urban Land Institute, Washington, DC, 2019.
"Lower 9 Vision Coalition Community Plan", published by the Tulane City Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, Spring, 2014.
"Housing as a Form of Non-formal Urbanism in Mumbai" published in Extreme Urbanism II, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2013.
"Return to Common Ground: New and Revitalized Plazas in New Mexico," published in The Plazas of New Mexico, Trinity Press, San Antonio, 2012.
The Pacheco Street Lofts Infill Development, published in ULI Development Case Studies, Urban Land Institute, Washington, D.C., 2009.
"Urban Interlopers," published in Metropolis, March, 2008.
"Unexpected Opportunities of an Urbanist Practice," published in Professional Practice 101: Business Strategies and Case Studies in Architecture, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2006.
"FRONTERA / BORDER, 7th Concurso Internacional ARQUINE: A Border Crossing at Anapra, Ciudad Juarez –Sunland Park, New Mexico," published in ARQUINE: Revista Internacioanal de Arquitectura, Mexico City, 2005.
