BACKGROUND
David Swan was born in Minneapolis, in 1940. He studied architecture and city planning at the Illinois Institute of Technology under Alfred Caldwell and Ludwig Hilberseimer, receiving a B-Arch and an M-Arch in both architecture and city planning in 1963 and 1964 respectively.
Between 1962 and 1972 he worked in a variety of offices including: the Chicago Department of City Planning; the University of Auckland School of Architecture, in New Zealand; Maki and Associates, in Tokyo; Loebel, Schlossman, Bennett, and Dart, in Chicago; and Booth and Nagle, in Chicago. In 1973 he established his office, David Swan/Architect, in Chicago.

PRACTICE
David Swan/Architect's works over the years have ranged in scale from custom single family residences to theaters, from high density low-rise housing developments to historic restoration work, and from loft conversions to institutional structures and commercial office space. The scope of the office's services includes comprehensive building design, from initial feasibility and programming, through site selection and zoning analysis, to contract documents, construction administration, design/build, and construction management. Planning services include master planning, long-range development planning, community board presentations, and landscape design. Historic preservation and restoration services include photographic surveys and as-built drawings, historical certification application work, and building restoration.