The Design School Lecture Series: David Yocum, AIA

David Yocum is co-founder and principal of BLDGS, a registered architect in the State of Georgia and the District of Columbia, a member of the American Institute of Architects, and has been in continuous practice for 22 years.

Yocum sees architecture as a community asset, and in his practice, he concentrates on architecture in the public realm. This includes work for museums and arts facilities, for higher education, commercial companies in design and media, and religious buildings.

Yocum's work is the recipient of over 20 national and international awards for excellence in design. In 2019, the firm received the 2019 Georgia AIA Firm of the Year award, the highest commendation given to a firm for excellence in design and community service. In 2017, he received the Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York. The work of BLDGS has been published in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and has been presented at national and international conferences.

In addition to his work with BLDGS, Yocum is a professor of the practice in architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Design where he teaches advanced design studios for graduate level students. His academic focus is the training of students in critical design thinking with particular emphasis on the challenges of architecture in the public realm, and the role architecture has in meeting broader societal needs. His most recent studio conducted a semester long design competition based on the Living Building Challenge 3.0 criteria for sustainable design, in parallel with a Georgia Tech building underway on the campus.

Previously, Yocum practiced for eight years with Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects where he was a senior project architect for National AIA Honor Award winning projects including the Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University, the Mountain Tree House in Dillard, GA, and the New United States Courthouse in Austin, Texas for the General Services Administration.

David received a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, with majors in history and studio art, where he was awarded a Reynolds Fellowship. He received a Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.