The Pairing:
Signe Nielsen, LHon. AIANY, RLA, FASLA, Principal, MNLA
Molly Bourne, RLA, ASLA, Principal, MNLA
David Burney, FAIA, Academic Coordinator of Urban Placemaking Management, Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment

Cocktail designed by:
Toby Cecchini, Bartender + Author

Signe Nielsen has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer in New York since 1978. Her body of work has renewed the environmental integrity and transformed the quality of spaces for those who live, work, and play in the urban realm. She is the recipient of more than 100 national and local design awards for public open space projects and is published extensively nationally and internationally. Nielsen is a professor of urban design and landscape architecture at Pratt Institute in both the graduate and undergraduate Schools of Architecture and serves as president of the Public Design Commission of the City of New York. Born in Paris, Nielsen received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Urban Planning from Smith College; a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture from City College of New York; and a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from Pratt Institute.

Molly Bourne has more than 24 years of design experience. Leveraging a combination of award-winning design talent and creative collaboration to navigate projects from concept through construction, she has led multidisciplinary teams on high-profile initiatives for waterfront parks, cultural institutions, and urban revitalization. Bourne’s passion and commitment spans a broad spectrum of skills including design direction, consultant coordination, project management, and client liaison services. A graduate of the University of Florida, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture. Bourne actively fosters the future of design through her work with the ACE Mentor Program for New York City high school students and as a guest critic at the University of Pennsylvania.

David Bourney, Moderateor
David Burney is co-founder and director of the Urban Placemaking and Management program at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture. The graduate MS program is the first in the country to focus on the emerging field of "placemaking" as an approach to urban and community design. He chairs the board of Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build strong communities. PPS is a central hub of the global placemaking movement, connecting people to ideas, resources and expertise. David Burney served as the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Design and Construction from 2004 to 2014. Prior to that he was Director of Design and Capital Improvement of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) from 1990 to 2003.



Toby Cecchini, Bartender & Author
Toby Cecchini is a writer and bartender based in New York City. He has written on food, wine and spirits for GQ, Food and Wine, and The New York Times. His first book, Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life, was published in 2003. He is currently at work on his second book, a travelogue of spirits based on his travels for The New York Times' Living and travel magazines. He began bartending at the Odeon in 1987, where he is credited with creating the internationally recognized version of the Cosmopolitan cocktail in New York. He followed that with stints in several bars including Passersby, which he owned until 2008. In 2013 he reopened the shuttered Long Island Bar in Cobble Hill Brooklyn.