image of anthony in blue

Hello. My name is Anthony, and I am a urbanist, designer, technologist + academic.



Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Columbia University logo-Columbia

he/him/his
Email: a*****@columbia.edu (click to view)
Orcid: 0000-0001-7951-4124
Curriculum Vitae

Anthony Vanky, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, a co-director of the NSF Center for Smart Streetscapes and is an affiliate of the Columbia Data Science Institute. His research focuses on emerging practices using digital data and pervasive technologies to understand and shape better cities, while centering residents’ individual and lived experiences.

Trained as an architect, urban designer, and planner, he has held appointments in urban planning and technology at the University of Michigan and urban design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Vanky has been an innovator within the university, having helped shape Michigan’s first-of-its-kind urban technology degree and, as its first academic program manager, helped develop MIT designX, the first academic accelerator dedicated to advancing innovation and entrepreneurship in design, cities, and the built environment. Additionally, he served as a research lead at the MIT Senseable City Lab, a multidisciplinary research group, where he bridged the lab’s engagement with industry and the public as the lab’s partner and outreach strategist.

In addition to presenting to and consulting with governments and institutions worldwide, Vanky’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Dutch Design Week, Detroit Month of Design, New Orleans DesCours, and Gwangju Design Biennial, among others. He has also served in national leadership roles at the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, and the American Institute of Architecture Students. Additionally, he founded two non-profit youth advocacy organizations, which are still active today in his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan.