Vol. 11 Presenter: Simon David
Presenting
Social Streets
Summary
In moments of shock and crisis, familiar boundaries are often redefined—from coastlines to political boundaries, to the edges of our sidewalks and roads—permanently reestablishing our relationship with our social and ecological worlds. This pandemic pushed us to reimagine many aspects of our built environment. This presentation will focus on reframing streets as social destinations rather than boundaries. By transforming this everyday infrastructure — an annual cost of $1 billion to New Mexico — there is the promise of both short-term solutions to the pandemic, but also a longer-term revolution in our public space that brings enhanced safety, local economy, community interaction, and sense of place.
Bio
Simon David is the Founding Principal & Creative Director of OSD Outside, a multidisciplinary design group working across North America, with offices in New York City and New Mexico. OSD Outside is a national and international award-winning design firm building resilient and equitable communities with a focus on urban design, planning, architecture, and landscape architecture. Prior to founding OSD Outside, Simon was Project Leader at Bjarke Ingels Group for Phase 1 of the BIG U (ESCR), a 2.2-mile coastal resiliency project for the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which provides flood protection for 110,000 low-income residents.
Simon is a trained Architect, Professional Landscape Architect, and holds a BA from St. John’s College, Santa Fe. In 2011, he was awarded the national Gabriel Prize by Western European Architectural Foundation. Simon lectures and writes about resiliency and urban public space, and his work has been exhibited internationally. Simon teaches studios on Urban Development + Climate Change at Parsons, City College, and NJIT, and a seminar on the Future of Mobility + Urban Communities. Simon is a regular design critic on juries at Columbia University, Cornell, the University of Virginia, Penn State, Parsons, CUNY, and Harvard Graduate School of Design.