Simon David

Simon David is the founder of OSD (Office for Strategy + Design) and is a designer and strategist working at the intersection of urban design, landscape, architecture, and climate adaptation. His work is grounded in an “outside-in” approach to design and planning, using ecological, social, and infrastructural systems as the primary strategic framework for organizing cities, communities, and environments under increasing uncertainty.

David has led complex, multidisciplinary projects addressing climate risk, coastal resiliency, human and ecological wellness, and urban transformation. Prior to founding OSD, David served as Project Leader at Bjarke Ingels Group, where he led public-realm work on major urban initiatives, notably as project leader on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project in New York City. David founded OSD as a platform for this thinking. OSD’s work has received over 40 national and international awards from organizations including the National ASLA, NYAIA + NYASLA Transportation and Infrastructure, Azure AZ Awards, Architizer, and The Architect’s Newspaper, and has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, TIME, PBS NewsHour, and Architectural Digest.

David was named a 100 Visionary Creative Thinker by Architizer in 2026. David’s experience teaching in schools of architecture, including CCNY, Parsons, and NJIT, involves teaching studios, and seminars on mobility and urban communities. David speaks and writes about landscape-led urbanism, climate volatility, and the need for resilience to transcend branding and instead become robust systems thinking. David lives and works between OSD’s offices in New York City and Taos, New Mexico, with one foot in the center of global commerce and culture, and the other in a landscape of indigenous culture and big nature.