Davis Butner is an architectural designer, musician, educator, and writer with an interest in the intersection of architecture, preservation, and the performing arts. With interdisciplinary experience in design, curation, and artistic planning, he is passionate about the civic role of architecture and the performing arts as a means of promoting and preserving cultural heritage.

A proud native of Atlanta, GA, he is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Music and Architectural Design, likewise completing a certificate of design at the Architectural Association in London, and his masters in architecture at Yale University.

With a broad range of professional engagements, he has worked for a variety of firms and organizations including the Atlanta Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras, APPAREIL Office for Architecture in Barcelona, Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture and Threshold Acoustics in Chicago, Theatre Projects Consultants in Norwalk, CT, and William Rawn Associates in Boston. In 2019, Davis was selected as one of 18 US graduates for a Henry Luce Fellowship, providing a yearlong professional placement and cultural immersion in one of 19 countries in Asia. Based in Shanghai, he served as an architect and researcher for Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, studying various strategies for adaptive reuse and redevelopment in the planning of cultural and hospitality projects in Asia and in the curation of the firm's second monograph publication. Evacuating Shanghai in late January 2020 due to the onset of COVID-19, he embarked for two months on an immersive tour of the hospitality industry in East Asia, visiting and archiving projects in Kuala Lumpur and Bali as well as historic preservation efforts in Penang, before traveling to Japan to work with leaders of Airbnb China on renovations for a hotel in the town of Hakuba.

Returning to Atlanta at the onset of the US global travel advisory, he practiced at Summerour & Associates, engaging in the restorative masterplan of the historic town of Gay, GA. In 2023 he returned to Chicago to practice with Studio Gang Architects on sustainable design and curation efforts across the US and Europe.