David Baker, FAIA, LEED AP, founder, David Baker + Partners

摘要

David Baker believes that affordable housing can, in fact, be easier to design than market-rate housing. "The clients are more driven by a desire to have a really great project," he explains, and because they take a longer-term approach, they are less inclined to direct him to design something that is marketed solely for the here and now, he adds. Founded in 1982, San Francisco-based David Baker + Partners has received more than 150 architectural design awards with Baker at the helm. Having recently received the AIA California Council's 2012 Distinguished Practice Award, as well as the Hearthstone Builder Humanitarian Award in 2010, Baker has much to be proud of, yet he remains humble, crediting his 15-person team and the local redevelopment agency with much of the firm's success and ability to create something both beautiful and affordable. Baker takes great pride in working with an award-winning landscape architect, as well as using a lighting designer and purchasing locally sourced furniture for his communities. All of these combine to create what he calls "a much nicer" community for the same cost as a conventional community.