Advisory Board (2011-present) Board of Trustees, Vice-Chair (2009-2011) Board of Trustees, CTBUH Chairman (2006-2009) Jury, Awards (2012, 2013) Conference, Co-Chair (Chicago, 2006; Dubai, 2008; Chicago, 2009) Conference, Organizing Committee, Member (Chicago, 2009) London, UK Laing O’Rourke

David Scott is the lead structural director of the Engineering Excellence Group at Laing O’Rourke where he works on developing a wide range of innovative solutions for tall buildings. This group is the focal point for Laing O’Rourke’s extensive research and development agenda, and he works with academia and the best engineering and architectural firms in the world, to bring creative building solutions to major building projects.

Mr. Scott, a past chairman of the CTBUH, previously led the Arup Buildings Practice in the Americas. He was at the forefront of many of the firm’s biggest projects, including work on Freedom Tower. Prior to this he was based in southeast Asia, for 15 years and led Arup’s first building projects in China, Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines.

He graduated with a first class honors in Engineering from Edinburgh University in 1977 and joined Arup in London as a structural engineer the same year.

He has extensive tall building experience that started with Norman Foster’s landmark Hongkong Bank Headquarters Building. During his fifteen years in Hongkong he led the design of many towers in China, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan. He has worked on many award winning and innovative projects, such as the Hongkong Bank Headquarters, the Biological Sciences Building at HKU, the International Airport Terminal Building in Hong Kong and the 300m Cheung Kong Center for Hong Kong’s largest developer.

David moved to New York in 1998 to take up a key role in the Arup Buildings Business in the United States. He was in New York on 9-11, 2001 and witnessed the attack on the World Trade Center and was part of the SEAoNY engineering team that worked at Ground Zero to assist with the search, recovery and clean-up.

Following 9-11 he was extensively involved in the industry review of design standards and procedures for tall buildings in extreme events. He has authored papers on Fire Induced Progressive Collapse, and was a reviewer of the US Governments (GSA) design requirements to mitigate progressive collapse, that were issues in 2002. He also worked extensively with Daniel Libeskind on the WTC masterplan and his design for Freedom Tower.

David has a passion for the design of unusual articulated structures and is actively involved in several new spectacular forms of skyscraper. He is also an advocate of sustainable design and would like to see tall buildings take a world-wide role at the front of the sustainable movement to document their energy use and carbon footprint, on a square foot basis. He believes that the CTBUH Sustainable Working Group will help to implement a global improvement in the performance of tall buildings.

He is a proponent and supporter of other CTBUH working groups; Seismic Design of Tall Buildings and Fire and Life Safety in Tall Buildings.

His published books and research papers in the field of Tall Buildings include:

SCOTT, D., LANE, B. & GIBBONS, C. (2002). Fire Induced Progressive Collapse. National Workshop on the Prevention of Progressive Collapse, Chicago, Illinois, July 10-12, 2002.

SCOTT, D., FARNSWORTH, D.,JACKSON, M. & CLARK, M. (2007). Structural System of North-East Asia Trade Tower in Korea. Proceedings of the CTBUH 8th World Congress, 3rd-5th March 2008. Dubai, UAE. Published by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago. pp.433-440

CHUNG, K. R., SCOTT, D., KIM, D. H., HA, I. H. & PARK, K. D. (2008). The Effects of Complex Geometry on Tall Towers. Journal of the Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Volume 16, Issue No.4. UK. December 2007. pp.441-455