David Shanks

Master of Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2009
Bachelor of Arts, New York University, 2003

Registered Architect, New York

David Shanks, RA, NCARB is an Assistant Professor in the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture. He is co-founder of the architectural practice ASDF, which was named Best of Practice by The Architect’s Newspaper in 2021, and received a Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects New York State Chapter in 2023. Previously, he practiced in globally recognized offices such as Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM), Gluckman Tang Architects, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), and Preston Scott Cohen, Inc.

David has exhibited his design work in venues such as the Boston Society of Architects, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Biennale di Architettura di Pisa. He has published his written research in journals such as Pidgin and the Journal of Architectural Educations, and in the edited volume Mies van der Rohe: The Architecture of the City (Il Poligrafo, 2023). David has been a resident fellow of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust and the MacDowell Colony.

From 2018 to 2020, David was the Architecture Program Director on Syracuse University’s study abroad campus in Florence, Italy. He has also been an Assistant Professor at Syracuse’s home campus School of Architecture, a Visiting Instructor at Kookmin University’s School of Architecture in Seoul, Korea, and an Adjunct Instructor at the Boston Architectural College.