David Fixler

Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design

David Fixler is an architect specializing in working with existing buildings.  A graduate of Columbia University GSAPP, he directed the efforts of two large firms on the conservation, renewal and adaptive re-use of significant 18th – 20th century properties, prior to opening his own practice in the spring of 2017.  Since the mid-1990s’ these efforts have been particularly focused on the development of a critical framework and implementation strategies for the rehabilitation of 20th century modernism.

His built projects include the rehabilitation of Alvar Aalto’s Baker House and Eero Saarinen’s Kresge Auditorium and Chapel – all at MIT, Louis Kahn’s Richards Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania and the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and significant rehabilitation/addition and conservation planning projects for many other institutional and government clients including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford Universities, as well as a Master Plan for the Massachusetts State House.

David has taught and lectured around the world, his work has been published internationally, and he has helped organize and lead numerous conferences on a wide-range of topics.  His writings have been featured in many trade and scholarly journals including the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH), Change Over Time, Cultural Resources Management, Ptah, and Architecture Boston, and he has guest edited special editions of The Journal of Architectural Conservation, the Docomomo International Journal, and the APT Bulletin.  His book Aalto and America, co-edited with Stanford Anderson and Gail Fenske, was published by Yale in 2012.

A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Association for Preservation Technology (APT) and Peer Review Architect for the United States General Services Administration, he plays a leadership role in a variety of global conservation organizations, including APT, as co-founder and former Chair of the Technical Committee on Modern Heritage, the Society of Architectural Historians, and Docomomo, where he has served internationally on the ISC for Registers, and as co-founder and current president of Docomomo-US/New England.