Architects have expressed optimism over the recent election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, citing his campaign’s focus on housing and the environment.

“There is tremendous enthusiasm within the architecture and design community for change and new opportunities in our city,” said AIA New York executive director Jesse Lazar.

“We look forward to working with mayor-elect Mamdani to advance goals we have long championed and that he has also emphasized, including increasing housing production and affordability, strengthening our collective commitment to resilience and decarbonization, and improving and expanding our public transportation and public spaces.”

Zohran Mamdani is the mayor-elect of New York City

A member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the 34-year old state assemblyman from Queens Mamdani won the election 5 November, beating former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

His focus on affordability and improving the city’s housing stock has caught the attention of many architects in the city, along with the passage of several city propositions on Tuesday designed to speed up the approval of construction projects in the city, especially housing.

The campaign made commitments to build as many as 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.

New York architect and Columbia professor Laurie Hawkinson echoed the excitement and emphasised the need for architects to help to translate the new administration’s goals into the built environment.

“Very excited and optimistic”

“I am very, very excited and optimistic (and architects are, of course, eternal optimists) about Zohran Mamdani’s election as our new mayor,” Hawkinson told Dezeen.

“In the public realm, it is the job of architects, landscape architects and designers to translate the goals and ideas into built projects and infrastructural opportunities in challenging and innovative ways while engaging with long-term issues of climate change and the impact of a changed environment,” she continued.

“I am very excited about working with and for this new administration.”

Continuing the climate agenda begun by previous administrations, already in motion.

Mamdani’s platform includes renovating 500 schools “with renewable energy infrastructure” and replacing asphalt school yards with green space.

Pratt professor and director of the Center of Climate Adaptation, David Erdman, said maintaining a focus on ongoing initiatives, such as the planned Climate Exchange for Governors Island and the Department of Environmental Protection.

“Win spotlights the need for innovative housing models”

These issues are more “buried” according to Erdman, but are of importance to the architecture community as the city transitions to more sustainable building.

“I think that the win spotlights the need for innovative housing models, and I would say more specifically, ones that mix generations and understand themselves as a type of infrastructure, not only social and economic, but they can give back to the broader community, maybe in ways that haven’t been talked about so much in New York,” he said.

In Erdman’s conception, building a more resilient, self-sufficient city will also work towards lowering costs.

“We could be less dependent on Upstate water reservoirs,” Erdman told Dezeen.

“If you want to keep water and energy prices down, one really great way to do that is to use decentralised campus-based infrastructure. Housing would be a smart way to do that.”

Mamdani also received the endorsement of New York state’s mayor, an important factor for architects who are working with multiple levels of government, a commonality in large infrastructure initiatives.

Architect and founder of WXY Studio Claire said that the openness of the governor to work with Mamdani should be encouraging to architects.

“I think some of our most important projects are City and State – from transit to our beaches and housing,” she told Dezeen.

“We are not only a city but a region,” she continued. “The most engaging and innovative approaches come from interagency and public /private collaboration, and this is especially important on housing and infrastructure.”

Mamdani will take the helm of the city government in January 2026.

In other political news, Dezeen interviewed Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama on the ambitious building projects in the country.

Top photo by Iwan Baan.