Proposed by: Hancock Park Garden Club, Zone XII

David Rubin believes “design can save the world” and “life is what happens between buildings.” He is a scholar, 2011 GCA Rome Prize recipient, landscape architect, and founder of the David Rubin Land Collective, a landscape architecture, urban design, and planning studio. 

His studio emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration where a holistic approach that synthesizes art, technology, and social science leads to sustainable design and development. He is lauded for practicing socially purposeful and “empathy-driven” design that fuses social justice with excellence in the design of public spaces. 

David’s varied projects include being tapped by the United States World War I Centennial Commission to assist with incorporating the National World War I Memorial into Washington DC’s Pershing Park. The completed memorial serves as a touching tribute to those who fought in WWI as well as a welcoming urban oasis in the nation’s capital. 

David’s work has received awards and honors from the American Society of Landscape Architects and the American Institute of Architects. Currently, he serves on a US government advisory group on best practices in landscape architecture.

Through the power of great design, David is changing the way people interact in urban spaces.