David Nichols

Job Title: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR EMERITUS

Biographical Information

David Nichols began teaching in the School of Environmental Design in the fall of 1988. He holds a B.S. from The University of Tennessee in 1978 with a major in Ornamental Horticulture and a M.L.A. from Louisiana State University in 1982. Prior to coming to Georgia, he spent nearly seven years in private practice offices in Birmingham, Alabama. His research and practice work has won two ASLA national awards in 1993 and 1998 as well as several state-chapter ASLA awards. 

His teaching interests have focused primarily on landscape construction, site engineering, plant materials, and community residential design. He also began the class entitled Field Studies in Contemporary Landscape Architecture in 1990 in an effort to expose our students to award-winning projects and nationally-recognized professional offices. Since that first trip, nearly 400 CED students have had the opportunity to visit firms such as Sasaki Associates, Hargreaves Associates, Michael van Valkenburgh, Reed Hilderbrand, SWA Group, EDAW (now AECOM), Oehme van Sweden, Hanna Olin, Wallace Roberts and Todd, Andropogon, James Corner Field Operations, Walker-Macy, Carole Mayer Reed, Jones and Jones, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, and the Portico Group.

David is the author of a chapter in Volume IV of the Handbook of Landscape Architectural Construction, the co-author of a book with Brad Davis entitled Plants in Design to be published soon by UGA Press, and has authored over 30 professional articles and research papers. He is currently researching landscape plants that are the source of FDA-approved drugs.

From 2005 until 2020, he served as the director of the Founders Memorial Garden, overseeing renovations to and maintenance of the garden. During his tenure, he was involved in fundraising efforts to implement several critical security and aesthetic improvements to the historic garden.