After a Successful Career, the Heart Yearns for the College that Made Him

Randhir Sahni has had a successful career at his namesake architecture company Lewellyn-Davies Sahni in Houston. He holds Masters degrees from Kansas State University and Rice University.

Randhir Sahni has had a successful career at his namesake architecture company Lewellyn-Davies Sahni in Houston. He holds Masters degrees from Kansas State University and Rice University.

By Jawahar Malhotra

MANHATTAN, KANSAS: Even after all these years – forty one to be exact – he remembers well the journey that brought him to Denver  on September 4, 1966, and then two days later to Kansas State University from the heat of the western plains of Gujarat. In his naiveté, he had turned down an immigrant visa offered by the US Embassy, worried about being drafted to the Vietnam War and took the F1 visa route instead.

But his older brother Sudhir and parents were already in Denver and eased the way for him. He caught a break on the TOFEL exam requirement and rode into Kansas on a train to attend the K-State (as it is fondly called) School of Architecture, which had opened just three years earlier.

Sahni Family Design Studio on the first floor of the School of Architecture building.

Sahni Family Design Studio on the first floor of the School of Architecture building.

Then 22 years-old, Randhir Sahni had just finished his Bachelors in Architecture in 1966 from the renowned Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He wistfully remembers the regal buildings built in1881 on 275 acres where today 35,000 students study and he can still carry on in conversational Gujarati. Born in Lahore to a Punjabi family in 1944, his parents had already moved before the Partition to Uttar Pradesh and then he later went to boarding school in Delhi.

He arrived in K-State – the first public institution of higher learning opened in 1863 in the state of Kansas – to get a Masters in Architecture, receiving it in 1968. A short stint in California and Indianapolis made Sahni determined to specialize in Urban Design and Planning and he finished a Master’s degree at Rice University in 1971.

Ready for the ball game, from left, Mia Braslavsky, Sunila Sahni, Nandita Sahni, Blake Braslavsky, Rohini Sahni and Roman Braslavsky

Ready for the ball game, from left, Mia Braslavsky, Sunila Sahni, Nandita Sahni, Blake Braslavsky, Rohini Sahni and Roman Braslavsky

Sahni spent the next 5 years honing his skills at CRS Architects in Houston and then in 1977 made the move to Lewellyn-Davies Associates. “Three years later, they shuttered their New York office and made me an offer to become partner in Houston and I took it,” he recalled of the fateful opportunity thrown at him, adding Sahni to the company name.

Despite building his firm, career and reputation in Houston for the next three decades, Sahni still had a special spot for the place which first taught him how to become an American architect and in 2008 he made a donation to K-State School of Architecture. That caught the eye of the Dean, who came to visit him in Houston and asked him to give the commencement speech at the school in 2012.

Mia, 6, and Blake Braslavsky, 3, grandchildren of Randhir and Sunila Sahni at the entrance door, pointing to the Sahni Family Design studio nameplate

Mia, 6, and Blake Braslavsky, 3, grandchildren of Randhir and Sunila Sahni at the entrance door, pointing to the Sahni Family Design studio nameplate

Soon after that, he was appointed to the Dean’s Advisory Committee and in 2016, Sahni and his wife Sunila were named to the Board of Trustees of the Kansas State University Foundation. Another opportunity arose then to donate for the naming rights for a design studio in the School Of Architecture, Planning and Design’s renovated Seaton Hall/Regnier Hall Building. The Sahni Family Foundation took advantage of it and donated a substantial amount towards the construction of the Sahni Family Design Lab.

Two weeks ago, on Thursday, October 12, the newly renovated architecture building was dedicated with a daylong celebration which began with lunch for the donors at the Alumni Center, followed by the Dedication Ceremony at 2pm and a reception at 4pm on the “green roof” of the building and Sahni was there with his family to be recognized for their generous support.

The $80 million building was conceived about six years ago to meet the growing and changing needs of the school that offers degrees in Architecture, Urban Planning, Product Design, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design and is one of the leading schools in the country. The building complements the academic curriculum in quality, design and character and uses the latest technology in the classroom to provide design related education.

Sahni gets choked up when he looks back at the young man he was, fresh from the Old Country and with no money in his pocket. “It was such an honor to be there for the dedication of the School and the Sahni Family Design Lab,” he said. Especially so as his whole family and two grandkids Mia and Blake were there with him. “We watched the football game between K-State and TCU in the President’s Box and the University President Gen. Richard B. Myers even came by to play with the kids!”