Wentworth’s Ilyas Bhatti Accepts Third Gubernatorial Appointment
Ilyas Bhatti keeps answering the call.
The esteemed associate professor of construction management at Wentworth Institute of Technology has accepted Massachusetts Gov. Charles D. Baker’s invitation to serve on the state’s Designer Selection Board. The new post, Bhatti’s third gubernatorial appointment across several decades, marks a resumption of his track record of public service for Massachusetts and the City of Boston.
The Designer Selection Board is an autonomous 11-member panel that selects designers for state building projects and Commonwealth charter school initiatives. The DSB serves the design community and assists municipalities and other state entities with guidelines for their designer selection process.
Bhatti, who also was just appointed interim associate dean of the newly designated School of Management at Wentworth, said he was “honored and delighted” to accept Baker’s appointment.
In addition to his 17 years of teaching at Wentworth, Bhatti has more than 40 years of professional experience in the private and public academic sectors. He previously held a distinguished endowed faculty position at Wentworth as the Douglas C. Elder Professor in construction management.
He was appointed by former Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld to oversee the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel— part of the largest and most complex highway project ever completed in the heart of a major American city. And he served as commissioner of the Metropolitan District Commission under Weld and former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.
Bhatti has been involved in numerous building and construction improvement initiatives with the City and state divisions including the Department of Transportation. Bhatti and his Wentworth students, for example, collaborated with the DOT to transform the Bowker Overpass and Charlesgate Bridge area in Boston and finally blend the site into Frederick Olmstead’s Emerald necklace. The Bowker Overpass and Charlesgate Bridge are in one of the last remaining pieces of the chain in the Muddy River area near Kenmore Square. More recently, he served as the facilitator on the state secretary of transportation’s independent review team for the highly complex Allston I-90 Interchange design project.
Bhatti’s specialties include studies and design in civil engineering; transportation studies; construction management; and public policy development. He teaches courses in financing construction projects; construction management; structural analysis; project management; and executive management.
His previous company, Bhatti Group Inc., conducted several water and wastewater project feasibility studies around the world.
In 1993, Bhatti delivered the commencement address at Wentworth and was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering Technology from the Institute.
--Dennis Nealon