DAVID GOUVERNEUR received his M.Arch. in Urban Design from Harvard University (1980) and his bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela (1977). He was Chair of the School of Architecture at Universidad Simón Bolívar (1987-91) and Director of Urban Development of Venezuela (1991-96), as well as professor and cofounder of the Urban Design program and Director of the Mayor’s Institute in Urban Design at Universidad Metropolitana, in Caracas, Venezuela (1996-2008). His professional practice focuses on urban plans and projects for historic districts, rehabilitation of areas affected by extraordinary natural events, new centralities and mixed use districts, improvement of informal settlements, and tourism/recreational areas. Since 2002, he has lectured at the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and since 2008, also in the Department of Regional and City Planning. He is currently Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the School of Design, University of Pennsylvania.

Students working under his supervision have won various awards since he has been at Penn, including the Urban Land Institute Competition (ULI winner, runner-up and 2 honorable mentions, 3 student awards granted by the ASLA and winner of the Edmund Bacon Foundation competition in 2008). He received a G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2008.