Sean Gallagher

Sean A. Gallagher is a Principal and Director of Sustainable Design at Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), an interdisciplinary design studio working across architecture, urbanism, art, performance, and media. Known for expanding the boundaries of architectural practice, DS+R was the first architecture studio to receive a MacArthur Foundation grant and was named among TIME’s “100 Most Influential People.”

Raised in a small Appalachian mountain community by ecologists, Gallagher developed an early understanding of landscapes as interconnected living systems. Over the past 25 years, this perspective has shaped his practice, exploring how architecture and cities can operate more like natural systems, integrating water, energy, habitat, materials, and human experience to create more exciting and regenerative environments.

Gallagher led the interdisciplinary team behind CanalCafé, recipient of the Golden Lion for Best Participation at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. The project transformed water from the Venetian canal into potable water through a hybrid natural and engineered biofiltration system, demonstrating how ecological infrastructure can become a public and cultural experience. He served as Principal in Charge of the David Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago, named the 2022 Best Tall Building Worldwide by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. At Columbia, where he has taught for two decades, Gallagher served as Project Architect for Henry R. Kravis Hall and David Geffen Hall, the two buildings comprising Columbia Business School’s Manhattanville campus.

Beyond his professional practice, Gallagher believes that meaningful change requires civic engagement and advocacy. As Vice President of the Embankment Preservation Coalition in Jersey City, he is leading the transformation of a historic rail embankment and its self-seeded urban forest into a new kind of public space rooted in preservation, ecology, and community. For Gallagher, the future of cities depends on how successfully we accept and integrate natural systems into the urban fabric, creating environments where people and nature can thrive together.