David Childs

Last updated

David Childs
Born
David Magie Childs

(1941-04-01) April 1, 1941 (age 83)
Nationality American
Alma mater Yale School of Architecture
Occupation Architect
Employer Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Known for One World Trade Center
383 Madison Avenue at night 383 Madison Ave Bear Stearns C R Flickr 1.jpg
383 Madison Avenue at night

David Magie Childs (born April 1, 1941) is an American architect and chairman of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. [1] He is the architect of the new One World Trade Center in New York City. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Childs graduated from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1959 [1] and from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1963. [3] He first majored in zoology before he then turned to architecture at the Yale School of Architecture and earned his master's degree in 1967. [4]

Career

He joined the Washington, D.C., office of SOM in 1971, after working with Nathaniel Owings and Daniel Patrick Moynihan on plans for the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue. Childs was a design partner of the firm in Washington until 1984, when he moved to SOM's New York Office.

His major projects include: in Washington, D.C., 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Four Seasons Hotel, master plans for the National Mall, the U.S. News & World Report headquarters, and the headquarters for National Geographic; in New York City, Worldwide Plaza, 450 Lexington Avenue, Bertelsmann Tower, and One World Trade Center; and internationally, the Embassy of the United States, Ottawa, and the Changi international terminal in Singapore.

Childs served as the chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission from 1975 to 1981 and he was appointed to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in 2002, serving as chairman from 2003 to 2005. He was the recipient of a Rome Prize in 2004; named a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council in 2010; and has served on the boards of the Municipal Art Society, the Museum of Modern Art, and the American Academy in Rome. [5] [6]

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill projects

Washington, D.C. (1971–1985)

New York City (1984–present)

Completed

One World Trade Center, New York City OneWorldTradeCenter.jpg
One World Trade Center, New York City

Planned

Other locations

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 20, 2013. Retrieved October 28, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "A Look at the New One World Trade Center". Architectural Digest. September 2012.
  3. "David M. Childs". nbm.org.
  4. "David Childs". The Real Deal New York.
  5. Design Futures Council Senior Fellows
  6. Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 542.
  7. Forgey, Benjamin (June 9, 1984). "Minding One's Urban Manners". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Retrieved December 8, 2015.