About David

I am the progressive candidate for Lake Ward, supported by Community Alliance of Port Phillip (CAPP).

I work with my partner Fooi-Ling Khoo in her niche architectural practice OOF! architecture from our home on the Esplanade in St Kilda. This year, in the national "Houses Awards", our Acute House, Albert Park, won a commendation for "Best House in a Heritage Context" in Australia. You may have seen it.

I teach Architectural History and Urban Design at the University of Melbourne, where my post-graduate Design Studios have been generating ideas for the future of our city over the past 12 years.

I have been a planning activist in Port Phillip for many years. I am a founding member of the Fishermans Bend Network (campaigning for better design outcomes there) and of the Bring Back Brookes Jetty movement (lobbying to rebuild the much loved pier demolished last year). Most recently I have commented publicly on the impact on view lines of the new Stokehouse and Lifesaving Club at St Kilda beach; helped the campaign to save the London Hotel in Port Melbourne; and made submissions to VCAT against the latest appalling development proposal at St Kilda Junction.

Acute House, Albert Park | OOF! archtecture

In the early ‘90s, I co-authored the City of St Kilda "20th Century Architectural Study" (which still forms the basis of heritage protection in the St Kilda end of the city.) I represented the community on the steering committee that merged all the city’s heritage studies after its amalgamation. On projects like these, my work has helped shape and protect our city’s historical environment. As has my work on numerous other Council committees overseeing the city’s urban design, its cultural vitality and its sustainable future.

I was elected to Council in 1999, and served for two terms, including two years as Deputy Mayor. I saw my fundamental councillor task as ensuring that a forward looking city evolved in tune with its cultural potential, its social values and its heritage legacy.

On my watch, the groundbreaking "Amendment C25" saved The Espy’s live music by enshrining, for the first time, the ‘cultural use’ of a place as a valid planning consideration. I shepherded through the "St Kilda Foreshore Urban Design Framework 2002" which continues to guide the community-based principles and planning for the future of the foreshore.

I am a St Kilda Football Club tragic, which, if nothing else, has instilled in me an over-riding optimism in a better future.

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