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Career: Typo fixing for Wikipedia:Typo Team/moss, replaced: ,I → , I

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{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox architect
| name = Sunita Kohli
| image = Sunita_Kohli.jpg
| caption = Sunita Kohli
| nationality = Indian
| birth_date = December 28, 1946
| birth_place = [[Lahore]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[British India|India]]
| occupation = [[interior designer]]
| alma_mater = Lady Shriram College, New Delhi and Lucknow University
| practice = President, K2India (Architecture, Interior Design, Furniture, Restoration, Landscape, Construction)
| significant_buildings=
| significant_projects = Interior Projects: Rashtrapati Bhavan, Hyderabad House, Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister's Residence, Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum, British Council Building in New Delhi; National Assembly Building, Thimpu, Bhutan; Hotel & Casino Mena House Oberoi in Cairo, Hotel Aswan Oberoi, Hotel EL-Arish Oberoi and luxury hotel boats on the Nile, notably the Oberoi Philae Cruiser in Egypt; residences in Sri Lanka; restoration hotel project in Lahore; Naila Fort in Jaipur.
| significant_design = Known to be original, research-based and culture specific in response to different locations across India and other countries.
| awards = [[Padma Shri]]
| website = {{url|http://www.k2india.com}}
}}
'''Sunita Kohli''' is an Indian interior designer, architectural restorer and furniture manufacturer. She had restored and decorated [[Rashtrapati Bhavan]] (the President's House), [[Parliament of India|Parliament House]] Colonnade (1985–1989), the [[Prime Minister's Office (India)|Prime Minister's Office]] and [[Hyderabad House]] in New Delhi.<ref name="fr">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/06/20/072a.html|title=Lutyens' Legacy|date=2 July 2007|magazine=Forbes}}</ref><ref name=jw>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050131225249/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/12/09/stories/2004120900350100.htm `Jewel legends' in city] ''[[The Hindu]]'', 9 December 2004.</ref><ref name="hi">{{cite news|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2006/07/06/stories/2006070602230100.htm|title=Preserving a world-class legacy|date=6 July 2006|work=The Hindu}}</ref>

She was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] by the [[Government of India]] in 1992.<ref>{{cite web|title=Padma Awards|publisher=[[Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India)|Ministry of Communications and Information Technology]]|url=http://india.gov.in/myindia/padma_awards.php}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=House of TATA: Padma Shri awardee Sunita Kohli believes creativity is part of DNA|work=The Economic Times|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/padma-shri-awardee-sunita-kohli-believes-creativity-is-part-of-dna/articleshow/71384819.cms|access-date=2021-02-16}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Born in Lakshmi Mansions, a noted Victorian building in [[Lahore]], to Indar Prakash and Chand Sur,<ref name="forb"/> Sunita Kohli grew up in a liberal household in [[Lucknow]] as her father was an [[Arya Samaj]]i and who had migrated to Lucknow after the [[Partition of India|partition]]. She studied at a Roman Catholic convent in Lucknow.<ref>[http://www.indianexpress.com/news/happiness-is-always-in-retrospect/249124/0 'Happiness is always in retrospect'] [[Indian Express]], 9 December 2007.</ref> Growing up her father would take her along to auctions and sales, looking for old lamps and furniture.<ref name="to"/> Later she graduated in English Literature from [[Lady Shri Ram College]] ([[Delhi University]]) in New Delhi, followed by an M.A. in English from [[Lucknow University]].<ref name="to">{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/The-three-Sunitas/articleshow/20451910.cms|title=The three Sunitas|date=11 February 2001|work=The Times of India}}</ref>

==Career==
She taught at [[Loreto Convent Lucknow]], before the "accidental" start of her career in interior design.<ref name="forb"/><ref name="to"/> After her marriage, she and her husband started frequenting ''[[Kabadi Wala|kabadi]]'' shops in their free time, looking for 19th century English furniture and lamps in Lucknow, Rajasthan and the hill resorts of Dehradun and Mussoorie. Soon Kohli converted her interest into an [[antiquarian]] business through which she sold [[Davenport desk]]s and Regency [[wine table]]s. She learnt restoration of furniture from local master-craftsmen, which led to the start of her restoration business.<ref name="forb"/>

She established Sunita Kohli Interior Designs, an interior design firm in New Delhi, in 1971. In the following year was established Sunita Kohli & Company, which manufactures contemporary classic furniture and fine reproductions of Art Deco, Biedermeier and Anglo-Indian colonial furniture. Most recently, her company K2india whose CEO is her architect daughter Kohelika Kohli launched a fine collection of Mid-Century Furniture. Her career, added another dimension, when in the mid-1970s she established in partnership, another design firm which was commissioned to design a small hotel for the [[Oberoi Group]], near the [[Khajuraho]] temples, The Oberoi in Bhubaneshwar and the Hotel Babylon in Baghdad. This firm closed but other hotel design projects followed in Cairo, Aswan and El-Arish in Egypt- The Oberoi [[Marriott Mena House Hotel]] and Casino, overlooking the Pyramids of [[Giza]]; two luxury hotel cruise boats on the Nile for the Oberoi Group; The Oberoi Aswan in Upper Egypt and The Oberoi in El-Arish, on the north coast of the Sinai Peninsula on the Mediterranean Sea. In the mid-1990s, she designed The Oberoi Philae Cruiser, another luxury hotel boat. For Mr. PRS Oberoi, she restored and decorated, for his personal use, the 250-year-old Naila Fort, near Jaipur.

Over the years she has designed several hotels, resorts and private residences in India and Sri Lanka. In Lahore, Pakistan, she has also worked on the restoration and conversion into a boutique hotel, of a late Sikh-period haveli in the Old City, over-looking the 17th century world heritage sites of the Lahore Fort and the Badshahi Mosque. In the early 1990s, she did the interior design of the British Council Building in New Delhi. She also designed the National Assembly Building in Thimpu, Bhutan. This Parliament Building was again worked on in 2010, by K2INDIA for the SAARC Summit in Bhutan. She has also been involved in the restoration and redecoration of numerous [[British Raj]] period buildings in New Delhi, mainly designed by Sir [[Edwin Lutyens]], Sir [[Robert Tor Russell]] and Sir [[Herbert Baker]], including Rashtrapati Bhawan (formerly Viceroy's House), the Prime Minister's Office, Parliament House and Hyderabad House.<ref name="forb">{{cite magazine|url=http://members.forbes.com/global/2007/0702/072.html|title=Forbes Global Life: Designing Woman|date=7 February 2007|magazine=Forbes}}</ref><ref name=em>{{cite web|url=http://halleinstitute.emory.edu/distinguished_fellows/%20Kohli.html|title=Sunita Kohli Halle Distinguished Fellow, April 22–25, 2007|publisher=Halle Institute, [[Emory University]]}}</ref>

Sunita Kohli has been the Chairperson and Founder Trustee of an NGO, Umang, that worked for street and slum children. She is deeply involved in primary education and health. She is a Founding Director of 'Satyagyan Foundation' in Varanasi - an organisation that works with children's education, women's literacy, women's advocacy and women's empowerment through vocational training; and is the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of 'Save-a-Mother', an NGO which is dedicated to decreasing maternal and infant mortality rates in India. She is a Patron of the Women's Cancer Initiative in Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

In 1992, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the [[Government of India]] "for contribution to national life by excellence in the field of Interior Design and Architectural Restoration". In the same year, she received the "Mahila Shiromani Award", recognising women of achievement, by Mother Teresa.<ref name=jw/>

In 2004, her younger daughter Kohelika Kohli, an architect and a [[Pratt Institute of Design]], New York graduate returned to India, after working with 'Oliver Cope Architects' and interning with 'Foster and Partners'. She created an architectural firm, 'Kohelika Kohli Architects'. Eventually in 2010, they formed K2INDIA, bringing together all their respective companies. In 2010, she again got involved in the conservation work of Rashtrapati Bhavan, after a gap of 19 years.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-07-17/india/28307360_1_rashtrapati-bhavan-flooring-building|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104111022/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-07-17/india/28307360_1_rashtrapati-bhavan-flooring-building|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 November 2012|work=[[The Times of India]]|title=Setting the House in order|date=17 July 2010}}</ref>

In 2005, Sunita Kohli was instrumental in the conceptualisation and founding of the 'Museum of Women in the Arts, India' (MOWA, INDIA). Within MOWA, an NGO is being established for the empowerment of rural master craftswomen. She has been on the National Advisory Board of the 'National Museum of Women in the Arts', Washington DC.<ref name=em/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/09/16/stories/2006091602240500.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105080914/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/09/16/stories/2006091602240500.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 November 2007|work=[[The Hindu]]|title=Museum with a mission|date=16 September 2006}}</ref>

Amongst many institutions, Sunita Kohli has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government Innovations, Emory University's Carlos Museum and Halle Institute, at Colorado College and at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. She has published and presented several papers; notably, 'Sir Edwin Lutyens and the Planning of New Delhi', 'Mughal Jewellery: Statement of Empire' and ‘World Heritage Sites in India: Monumental Statements of Faith and Empire’. She is a Fellow of the 'Halle Institute of Global Learning', Emory University, Atlanta, USA. Her essay on 'The Planning of New Delhi' is part of 'The Millennium Book on New Delhi', published by Oxford University Press. Her forthcoming books will be 'A Children's Book on Delhi's Architecture', 'Awadhi Cuisine' and 'Tanjore Paintings'. The first of these books has been illustrated by their three grandchildren - Anadya, Zohravar and Aaryaman.

In 2014, she was nominated as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the [[School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal]] by the [[Ministry of Human Resource Development (India)|MHRD]], Government of India, for a period of five years. In 2019, she joined the board of advisors at [[Rishihood University]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Haryana State Government Recognises Rishihood As An ‘Impact Oriented University’|url=http://bweducation.businessworld.in/article/Haryana-State-Government-Recognises-Rishihood-As-An-Impact-Oriented-University-/18-05-2020-192436|access-date=2021-02-02|website=BW Education|language=en}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1971, Sunita Kohli married Ramesh Kohli, an equity investor and alumni of the Doon School in Dehradun, St. Stephens College and Delhi University's Faculty of Law. They have three children- Kokila, Suryaveer and Kohelika and three grandchildren Anadya, Zohravar and Aaryaman.<ref name="to"/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/64684/|title=15 years later, Sonia mends an old fence|date=14 February 2005|work=Indian Express}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/Many-faces-of-Sonia-Gandhi/articleshow/24278511.cms|title=Many faces of Sonia Gandhi|date=6 October 2002|work=The Times of India}}</ref><ref>''The New Yorker'', Volume 74, Issues 1–10. 1998. ''p. 40''.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.indianexpress.com/news/happiness-is-always-in-retrospect/249124/0 'Happiness is always in retrospect'] ''[[Indian Express]]''

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Art}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohli, Sunita}}
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts]]
[[Category:Indian interior designers]]
[[Category:Indian brands]]
[[Category:University of Delhi alumni]]
[[Category:University of Lucknow alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Conservator-restorers]]
[[Category:Indian women designers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian designers]]
[[Category:Artists from Lahore]]
[[Category:Indian designers]]
[[Category:Indian women architects]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian architects]]
[[Category:1946 births]]

Sunita Kohli - Revision history

imported>BD2412: /* Career */Typo fixing for Wikipedia:Typo Team/moss, replaced: ,I → , I