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In her book Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side (Fordham 2018), Nandini Bagchee delved into the history of occupancy within three activist-run buildings in the New York City. Documenting the spaces and actions within these buildings via drawings, text and oral histories allowed Nandini to situate the multiple histories of engaged communities and the fraught, but liberatory experience of collaborative building practices. This project of archiving the relationships between physical spaces and collective action opened up a new way of understanding the mechanics of city-building and informed her practice as an architect and educator. In the first lecture of Spring 2025 semester at the Cal Poly Architecture School, Nandini Bagchee will present her ongoing work with community-based organizations in New York City and share her insights into what it takes to critically engage with community.

Principal Nandini Bagchee shares her experience leading a community-forward architectural practice in New York. An Interview with Metropolis Magazine

“South Bronx Unite, is one step closer to converting an abandoned building that 50 years ago served as a detox center into a community centerwith an emphasis on health, education and the arts.”
Article by Eliot Force, Janna McPartland and Hannah Fierick for the Mott Haven Herald on the HEArts Community Center.

Building HueSpaces is a series that centers the creation of museums and other arts enclaves founded and led by BIPOC organizers. The fist session explored how to start a capital project and determining what is needed in terms of building a new structure, renting and renovating an existing building, or considering other alternatives for an organization’s needs.
Attendees heard from architects, Latoya Nelson Kamdang and Nandini Bagchee, as well as David Dean, arts administrator, and Pres Adams, Senior Community Investment Officer for LISC NY.

MoMA PS1 and The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center present two panel discussions exploring how cultural workers have been involved in re-envisioning the use and stewardship of land in New York City. The Art of Land marks the closing of Life Between Buildings at MoMA PS1 and the launch of Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida, a digital exhibition organized by Nandini Bagchee and The Clemente.

Current Work is a lecture series featuring leading figures in the worlds of architecture, urbanism, design, and art. Presenters include, Andrea Steele Architecture, Bagchee Architects, di Domenico +Partners, Rogers Partners Architects and Sage and Coombe Architects.

“After working from temporary offices on the Lower East Side and then Harlem and the South Bronx, the organization (Laundromat Project) has returned to its roots in Bedford-Stuyvesant, opening its first public space, a storefront, with a 10-year lease, on the busy central corridor of Fulton Street. An open house planned for Aug. 6 will officially inaugurate that community hub.”
Article by Hilarie M. Sheets for the New York Times.

A conversation with Architect Nandini Bagchee and Memo Salazar, Board Co-chair of the Western Queens Community Land Trust about how local activists came together against Amazons HQ2 to replace a massive public owned building in western queens and the collective community visioning that formed into the city’s first non-residential CLT — and the manifold challenges and negotiations that are shaping ambitions beyond just one building.

“An outdoor event that seeks to provide residents with an opportunity to weigh in on the future of two publicly-owned properties in Long Island City will take place Saturday. ”
Article by Michael Dorgan for The LIC Post