A native of Los Angeles, David Thurman’s experience includes significant design and construction responsibility on projects for both domestic and international clients. This includes work for university, commercial, institutional, theater, and entertainment clients. Prior to joining Moule & Polyzoides, Mr. Thurman worked with a variety of leading design firms, including Barton Myers Associates, the Walt Disney Company, Gensler, and Frank O. Gehry & Associates.

Mr. Thurman served as project manager for Visalia’s Southeast Area Specific Plan, an 850-acre greenfield site at the edge of Visalia, California. This site is located in the heart of the fertile San Joaquin Valley, a region increasingly threatened with the proliferation of sprawl as expressed in autonomous, low-density, and walled subdivisions. The Specific Plan integrates carefully devised strategies to counter sprawl, including diverse intensities of mixed-use development knitted together with a network of walkable neighborhoods, varying scale streets, and generous greenways and public conservation areas. The project’s variety of housing options, architectural types, and styles are based on a rich local architectural vocabulary and incorporate highly sustainable features throughout.

Other project experiences include serving as project manager for the master planning of Occidental College’s historic 120-acre Los Angeles campus. The plan provides for nearly 1.3m square feet of new construction which is sensitively integrated with the original historic campus, designed by Myron Hunt. The new plan also features sustainability strategies which are broadly applied to buildings, landscape, and infrastructure as well as progressive replacement of parking and roads with pervious surfaces and landscape. By respecting Hunt’s design and establishing appropriate design controls, new buildings are harmoniously integrated into the campus. Other past clients include the Tempe Center for the Arts, New College of Florida, Brooks Institute, Loyola Law School, Chestnut Hill College, Soka University of America, The Walt Disney Company, Sony, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and ABC Studios.

As an active architecture writer and teacher, Mr. Thurman has published in periodicals such as World Architecture, Architecture California, Center, and Texas Architect. He co-taught design studios at UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and served as teaching assistant in design studios at Yale University and the University of Texas at Austin and a variety of other college and university design programs. Mr. Thurman is a LEED-Accredited Professional and has successfully completed the U.S. Green Building Council’s training program. He is a licensed Architect in the State of California.

Mr. Thurman received a Master of Environmental Design from Yale University, a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Occidental College.