Résumé

Officer, US Marine Corps, c. 1960-1963.

Founding Partner, [C. David] Robinson and Mills, Architects, San Francisco, CA, 1970- ; the firm's address in 1970 was 573 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94105.

Partner, Robinson, Mills and Williams, A.I.A., Architects, San Francisco, CA;

Professional Activities

In 1987, C. David Robinson spoke at a Princeton University Class of 1957 panel discussion, on the topic of "Where Is Architecture Going?" (See "Class Notes," Princeton Alumni Weekly, vol. 87, 07/15/1987, p. 34.)

High School/College

Coursework, Saint Albans School, Washington, DC.

Graduate, Saint Paul's School in Concord, NH, c. 1953.

B.A., Art History, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1957. At Princeton, Robinson joined several sports, including crew, rugby and hockey. He would be elected captain of his Princeton hockey squad.

M.Arch., University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Philadelphia, PA, 1965. He worked with Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) while at Penn.

Relocation

Born in New York, NY, his family moved to Washington, DC. during Robinson's childhood. He attended the prep schools in Washington, DC, and Concord, NH, before matriculating at Princeton University in 1953. He spent four years here, and then joined the US Marine Corps for three. Upon leaving the corps, he enrolled in the graduate architecture school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Following Penn, he moved to San Francisco, CA, where he began work for that city's office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, where he worked with Edward Charles "Chuck" Bassett (1921-1999). He worked here several years before incorporating with Matthew Mills to form the firm of Robinson and Mills in 1970. He spent his career working for this Robinson and Mills and its successor firm, Robinson, Mills and Williams. He left this firm to join James Stewart Polshek as a partner, and then opened his own office, C. David Robinson, Architect, in 1997.

Robinson passed away from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in his Sausalito, CA, residence.

Parents

His father worked as a lawyer and as a US State Department official.

Biographical Notes

C. David Robinson studied art history at Princeton University, and would later develop a significant art collection. He amasses a group of 150 early photographs, a portion of which was donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.