Ashima Krishna, PhD

Over the years she has worked on various projects dealing with architectural and landscape design, architectural and urban conservation, interior design, urban development, and adaptive reuse. Her principal interests remain in the preservation and conservation of built heritage and how they interface with issues of management and local governance, and especially how the management of heritage affects the way in which planners and architects shape the built environment.

Krishna fell in love with the rich history - both tangible and intangible - that surrounded her in her hometown of Lucknow, India. The northern Indian city of 2.8 million - a mid-sized city by India's standards - is incredibly proud of its history, says Krishna, who has studied the city's religious architecture. "Lucknow encapsulates the best of the relationship between Hindu and Muslim communities, and is also home to Sikh, Christian, Parsi, and other communities that make for a very rich social and cultural experience. That diversity is reflected in the city's architecture."

Krishna is now proud to call Buffalo home. A Rust Belt city undergoing a resurgence in nearly every corner, Buffalo is an ideal laboratory for the study of urban planning and architecture and historic preservation, according to Krishna. She points to Buffalo's Outer Harbor as a powerful representation of the city's past, present and future. "It encapsulates all that is essential Buffalo: its production history, its relationship to the Great Lakes, its diverse flora and fauna, and also the follies of twentieth century that act as a cautionary tale to the architects and planners of today and tomorrow."  

A dedicated professor and mentor to her students, Krishna serves as program director for the School of Architecture and Planning's graduate programs in historic preservation. "I enjoy sharing my passion for cities, their history, and their preservation with students. Often, that translates into students adopting urban history or historic preservation into their career goals." Krishna teaches documentation and field research methods in historic preservation, global perspectives in urban planning, as well as core courses and studios in the Master of Urban Planning program.

She holds a PhD in International Planning from Cornell University School of Art, Architecture and Planning, where she also earned a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning. She earned her Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture (New Delhi, India). She has received numerous awards for her research, including the a fellowship from the Clarence S. Stein Institute for Urban and Landscape Studies and a Global Heritage Fund Preservation Fellowship to study the impact of India’s federally funded initiatives through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) on historic sites in Agra, India.

 - Ashima Krishna

Krishna directly engages local stakeholders in her research on historic urban landscapes in Buffalo and around the world. Her methods include intensive primary research through interviews with community members and stakeholders to reveal the histories and stories behind an issue. Says Krishna, "Academia can often be a great tool to amplify community voices. This is a responsibility I owe to both planning and preservation - both fields and professions cannot exist without the input of the communities in which they occur."

Students and early-career alumni are also frequent collaborators in her work. Krishna says she believes in extending such opportunities as first-hand learning experiences in historic preservation research methods. Students and recent graduates have served as co-authors in Krishna's recent publications. 

Looking ahead, Krishna says the professions of architecture and urban planning, and subfields like historic preservation, must rise to the challenge of creating, and preserving, socially just spaces and places. "Developments in ensuring our physical, political, and institutional environments are just and equitable will need to be addressed as urgently as issues of climate change."