David Magie Childs, FAIA, is a consulting design partner with the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). He joined the Washington, D.C., office of the firm 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 projects in Washington include 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Four Seasons Hotel, Constitution Gardens, master plans for the Mall, Metro Center, U.S. News and World Report headquarters, and National Geographic headquarters; in New York, Worldwide Plaza, 450 Lexington Avenue, Bertelsmann Tower, and One World Trade Center; and internationally, the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, Canada, and the Changi international terminal in Shanghai. He served as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission from 1975 to 1981. Childs graduated from Yale University in 1963 and earned a master’s degree from its School of Art and Architecture in 1967. 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 Arts Society, the Museum of Modern Art, and the American Academy in Rome.
CFA Service:
2002–2005; Chairman 2003–2005