Chris Downey: Architecture for the Blind

The 2022 Blind Design Workshop will host Chris Downey, one of the few practicing blind architects in the world, for a guest lecture and Q+A session, at 4 pm on Friday, April 8th, in Cowgill 300.

Following twenty years of traditional sighted experience in architectural practice, Chris refocused his work on enriching the built environment for the visually impaired after losing his sight in 2008. Since then, he has established partnerships with design firms like SmithGroup, Gensler, HOK, and Bjarke Ingels Group, to complete projects like the University of Pittsburgh Vision and Rehabilitation Tower, the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco, a ‘multisensory master plan’ for the Philadelphia Zoo, and the sustainability pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.