Congratulations David on becoming an ASLA Fellow!
We are thrilled to share that our fearless leader, David Fletcher has been elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows.
He is one of 40 members who are being honored this year, for their exceptional contributions to our field.
David Fletcher is the founding Principal of Fletcher Studio, an innovative and award-winning collaborative practice based in San Francisco. His multidimensional background in sculpture and public art, along with his studies in field biology and landscape architecture, have cultivated a unique foundation for the design of conceptual and process-based landscape solutions. His contributions to the design field include decades of teaching, academic research, and writing. He began his career in raptor biology, worked in field ecology roles, and even did a stint as a professional taxidermist before committing his life’s focus to the betterment of public spaces as a landscape architect. He has practiced for over 30 years, completing works across project types, and scales indiscriminately.
David is especially committed to projects within the public realm that are equally accessible to all. His contributions in the design field include decades of design, advocacy, academic research, teaching, and writing. He has developed and applied a conceptual and narrative-based approach to design. David’s multidimensional background in Sculpture and Public Art, field biology, video gaming, and landscape architecture have cultivated a unique foundation for the design of conceptual and process-based landscape solutions. Under David's design leadership and acute vision, Fletcher Studio has received awards locally, nationally, and internationally for built and speculative work alike.
A few of the projects that were featured in David’s nomination include:
David redesigned San Francisco’s oldest park, South Park, to build on its Civil War-era history while solving the site’s infrastructure issues and improving accessibility. Using a single, meandering pathway to link public plazas, informal stages, bioretention gardens, gently sloping meadows, custom amenities, and custom play structures with the surrounding neighborhood, the award-winning design ties together disparate functions and offers a diversity of uses.
For the City of Healdsburg, Fletcher Studio developed the master plan for parks, open spaces, and natural resources with an emphasis on alternative transportation analysis, connectivity analysis, river access, and the design of two large parks (Montage Development Park and Badger Park).
Fletcher Studio was charged with leading the design of America’s first spreading forest cemetery at Better Place Forests in Point Arena, CA. We worked with a team of forest ecologists, artists, designers, and other consultants to master-plan the property and design structures, spaces, trail systems, wayfinding and signage, the burial marker, and habitat restoration.
David worked full-time on The Witness video game environment, designing and modeling spaces, structures, geography, geology, designing environmental puzzles, and biomes. The design team sought to create an engaging, beautiful, strange, and memorable experience for the player, independent of the gameplay experience. The Witness creates a place of wonder - even if the player never solves a single puzzle.
David is intensely committed to bettering his immediate spaces and community–the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. The studio’s “Hope + Space” program is an extension of this commitment, through which the studio dedicates 4% of the year’s income to help communities and neighbors realize a dream for their open spaces.
Among many more classics, including 300 Ivy, The Rivermark, Zurich Biopool, all featured Case Studies on our website… and a few of our newer projects, Nexus on Grand, the Vantage Campus, and OCVIBE.
Our warmest congratulations to the all the newly inducted ASLA Fellows! We are looking forward to celebrating with you at the Annual ASLA Conference in D.C., on October 8th. And a special shout out to our ASLA-NCC colleagues who are also being elevated to Fellow, Patricia Algara of BASE Landscape Architecture and Joni L. Janecki of Joni L. Janecki & Associates.
Thank you the ASLA-NCC Chapter Executive Committee and President, Anson Wong, for nominating David this year (thank you Liz Boults, and Laura Leuer for your help with the submission!) Additionally, thank you to our colleagues who provided such warm and thoughtful testimonials — thank you Brad Cantrell, Gary Strang, Chip Sullivan, Julie Christensen, and Steve Pulliam. We enjoy working with you all, and looking forward to more work ahead!
