Alexandros Washburn is the Chief Urban Designer for the City of New york Planning Department. Not since the 1970s had there been an urban design division within the department. Washburn sees urban design as the point at which politics, finance, and design come together; and that a broad perspective is needed to remember that each sector is only strengthened by an understanding of the other. He worked in both the private and the public sector prior to his 2007 appointment. Washburn’s experience in the public sector includes his work as advisor on public works to Senator Daniel moynihan, where he was the only staff architect working for the Senate, and later president of the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation. He then worked as a principal and partner at W Architecture, focusing on landscape architecture. His work at Chief Urban Designer has touched upon the Coney Island plaza, rezoning of West Chelsea with the High Line park, moynihan Station, and most recently bloomberg’s micro-unit housing prototype competition, whose winner was announced in January 2013. Washburn received his masters of Architecture from Harvard University, in 1988.