David A. Rubin MLA '90

David has had the pleasure of participating in several Graduate School of Design Open Studio explorations in the last several years, focusing on identity, accessibility – the invitation to participate – and engagement, to give opportunity for communities to see themselves in the resultant design explorations. He has participated in panel discussions and lectures at the HGSD with a focus on empathy and design practices through the Womxn in Design series, as well as “Pandemic Practice: Leading a Design Firm in a Time of Crisis,” among others. David was honored to host Harvard’s gathering at the 2018 Conference on Landscape at his Philadelphia studio and welcomes visits from GSD students and alum at any time. 

David’s burgeoning landscape architecture, urban design, and planning practice, DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, is passionately committed to an empathetic design problem-solving approach in an effort to assure those that participate in landscapes of the studio’s design can self-identify within those sites. As a nationally-certified LGBT Small Business Entity (SBE), Land Collective focuses design excellence with a priority on socially resilient and inclusive landscapes, so that the breadth of constituency can “see themselves” in the resultant works. David has developed and led complex design and planning projects in a wide range of American cities, from Detroit to Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., always with a focus on empowering constituency to foster identity. He is a frequent contributor to national forums on the design of cities and was recently appointed by the State Department to The Bureau of Overseas Building Operations (OBO) Industry Advisory Group to advise the U.S. Government on best practices in landscape architecture. 

Follow David on LinkedIn.