Board & Councils

David C. Rose is a landscape designer with over 20 years of experience focused on landscape connectivity and activating public outdoor spaces for civic engagement. He holds a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Buffalo, with training in architectural history, urban policy, and environmental design. David began his career in Buffalo, developing programs that link universities, historic faith communities, municipal agencies, and ecological systems to enhance access to shared public landscapes.

His work explores local landscape history while engaging residents through public space activation. His passion for landscape was shaped by early experiences in Brooklyn’s parks and family train trips to North Carolina’s Sauratown Mountains, inspiring his belief in the power of place to connect memory, community, and nature.

Growing up across the street from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, David spent a great deal of time at the campus library learning about renown landscape architects and architectural critics.  

In his readings he found out about the ATC and the organization’s intention to connect the mountains to cities. His journey to the Trail took shape early on with guidance from old maps and even older manuscripts. This is what his family foundation now supports: access to public lands through access first to maps and manuscripts.

David currently serves on the Board of the Historic Gloria Dei Preservation Corporation in Philadelphia and as Board Chair of the Sally Blagg Family Foundation, advocating for historic faith communities and sites of memory on public lands.