As the leader of SOM’s airports and transportation practice, Derek Moore strives to shape the spaces and structures of mobility across a range of project types, particularly airports, rail stations, and other ground transportation buildings. He is especially engaged in the early phases of projects, from strategic planning to the general arrangement of urban environments to detailed programming. Over the course of his career, Derek has led the planning of new terminals at all three New York area airports, as well as projects in Europe, the Middle East and across Asia. He also led the firm’s planning and urban design work for the award-winning transformation of Denver Union Station.
Derek believes that the architecture of transportation serves a civic purpose, both practical and symbolic. Transportation structures should be an enduring and meaningful part of the public realm. Now more than ever, they must also play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By increasing access and mobility, transportation facilities enable economic opportunity and increase social equity.
Enduring, efficient, just, and universally accessible—the spaces of transport can address the full spectrum of sustainability. They should also move us, in every sense.
Derek also holds advanced degrees in the history of art and architecture and wrote his Ph.D. dissertation as a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. He has published on a range of subjects in architecture and urban history and taught for ten years as an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
