As principal of Andre Tchelistcheff Architects, Andre leads a highly creative and accomplished group of individuals, who as a team perform effectively on a wide range of design and architectural projects.Andre was born in San Francisco, California to Russian émigrés, and raised in the Middle East and South East Asia. He received a Bachelor of Art in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984, and a Masters of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. While studying in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at M.I.T., Andre was awarded an Aga Khan Foundation Research Grant for his research on the Islamic heritage of the Kazan Tatars, accomplished on a field mission to the former Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990. He also received a grant from the Aga Khan Foundation for travel to the Old City of Sana’a, Yemen Arab Republic, to provide design studies of a new women’s health center in the historic Old City.For his work on culture and the built environment, Andre was awarded the Tucker Ashworth Fellowship in the Municipal Arts, through a national competition administered by the Municipal Art Society in 1991, for a study of how national and civic ideals are historically reflected in the war memorials of New York City. At that time Andre also developed a design for a pedestrian bridge spanning the East River, linking Manhattan to Long Island City, which was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 1999 Van Alen Prize in Public Architecture.Member of the American Institute of Architects, The Institute of Classical Architecture and the Architectural League. A founding board member of the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet and the Gelsey Kirkland Ballet and currently serves as Chairman of the Board.