David Malda
ASLA, leed ap
principal
David Malda is a key design leader at GGN. His work explores the role of landscape in connecting people to each other through experiences of the land. Narrative and engagement informs his designs, resulting in projects with impacts that extend beyond their sites. David’s emphasis on drawing and making throughout the design process is central to his role within the office, and he shares this knowledge in numerous studio reviews and student engagements throughout the year.
David has presented at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, and published a related essay in the Harvard University Press book, River City, City Rivers. He has served as a panelist at the 2019 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards CITIES: Detroit. He also co-founded a popular design drawing series at the University of Washington that began in 2016, and more recently he has co-led drawing workshops at the past two ASLA conventions. This focus on drawing is also central to an upcoming essay entitled Drawing in Perspective published by Routledge Press.
David’s equity work includes co-presenting Landscape as Relational Practice: Connecting People to and Through the Land at the 2021 LABASH conference at Cornell University and The Falls Initiative: Connecting Process and Place field session at the 2023 ASLA national conference in Minneapolis.
David holds a Masters in Architecture and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia.
PROJECTS
Friends of the Falls
John Treviño Jr. Metropolitan Park
Nu Skin Innovation Center and Campus
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campus
Lower Rainier Vista & Pedestrian Land Bridge
Washington State Convention Center Addition
Unified Ground: Union Square - National Mall Competition
UW West Campus Development Framework
Connecting Downtown Cleveland Master Plan
SELECTED LECTURES & ACTIVITIES
2024 “Working With: A Relational Practice,” Texas ASLA, Keynote Speaker
2024 University of Calgary Global Citizenship and Design Series, Speaker
2023 “Why a Garden?” Garden Club of Greater Milwaukee, Speaker
2023 “The Falls Initiative: Connecting Process and Place," ASLA Conference, Field Session Panelist
2019 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards CITIES: Detroit, Panelist
2018-present Intro to Landscape Design, Country Living Expo, Skagit County, Instructor
2017 Drawing What You Can’t See, University of Washington, Lecturer
2015 River Cities: Historical and Contemporary Symposium, Dumbarton Oaks, Lecturer
2015 The Street as the Future Opportunity DeepRoot and the Landscape Architecture Foundation, Panelist
2015 Art, Landscape, & the Public Realm GRAY Magazine, Panelist
2014 Design in Motion: Innovation at the Speed of Thought, Pecha Kucha, Presenter Seattle Downtown Library