My goal as a practicing landscape architect has always been to create and build landscapes that transcend – that honor the inherent qualities of a site – and anchor themselves in the hearts and minds of the people who experience them. There is always something inherent to a place that wants to be expressed, augmented and validated. But a great idea or a unique design isn’t enough. In my long career, I have become increasingly emphatic about execution. For me, physicality rules.

I incorporate the discipline of a professional practice in all my studios and challenge students from both a conceptual and practical standpoint. My lectures and my crits are theory-based but I insist on a level of inquiry and rigor that leads students to think more critically about everything they do, whether it’s expressing an idea or choosing a material. And yes, I make people draw. No matter their ultimate goal, I sincerely believe that students leave the semester energized by a greater awareness of their aesthetic and a much stronger appreciation for how to transform ideas into the physical realm.

A practitioner recognized for both his artistry and his ability to build the hell out of stuff, David is principal and founder of Meyer Studio – Land Architects. Prior to launching his small yet fierce Berkeley, California studio, David was a longtime partner at PWP and co-founded both Schwartz Smith Meyer and Meyer Silberberg. 

Winner of the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture, David has distinguished himself through a rigorous approach to both design and execution.  He credits his Iowa origins for his love of simple, sensual, deliberate designs that employ nature’s palette judiciously.   

David’s greatest contribution to the profession of landscape architecture is his profound and unwavering respect for what he calls ‘right physicality’.  He loves to build and he loves to build well.  Throughout his career and through collaborations with architects, artists, engineers, developers, contractors, public agencies and students, David has demonstrated that if you want an artistic outcome – if you want poetry – you have to go beyond the pragmatics. He has brought his signature integrity and rigor to projects ranging from a temporary installation at the American Academy in Rome to a 9,000-acre national park in China.

David knows that well designed places serve to empower people, unite them, delight them, and of course, move them. He believes that landscape architects are in the business of beauty and that despite the challenges we face building in today’s world, we must reach for a higher standard.  He says that rather than just solving problems and making useable spaces, we owe our world beautiful, lasting, important, sustainable places.   He pushes himself and the people around him to see what Luis Barragan called the intangibles of architecture….inspiration, magic, sorcery, enchantment, serenity, mystery, silence, privacy and astonishment. 

David has lectured and taught throughout the world, and has been an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley for the past 20 years where he currently teaches the graduate-level Capstone Studio. He incorporates the discipline of a professional practice in his studios and challenges students from both a conceptual and practical standpoint.   He insists on a level of inquiry and rigor that leads students to think more critically about everything they do, whether it’s expressing an idea or choosing materials. In the end, his students leave the semester energized by a greater awareness of their aesthetic values and a stronger appreciation for how to transform ideas into the physical realm.   

LA 204 Advanced Design

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