Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Dallas Architecture Forum continues with Robert Hammond

By Pegasus News wire

Photo provided by the Dallas Architecture Forum

Robert Hammond is a Co-Founder and President of Friends of the High Line. His organization brought the High Line, a 1.5-mile-long disused elevated rail structure on Manhattan’s West Side, from the brink of demolition, in 1999, to the start of construction, in 2006, on its conversion to a public park. The organization has raised over $130 million, and the first phase of the park is scheduled to open in 2008.

Mr. Hammond has worked as a consultant for a variety of entrepreneurial endeavors and non-profits. He worked with the Times Square Alliance from 2002 to 2005, helping the Business Improvement District President to develop a new vision for Times Square, including a master plan for comprehensive streetscape design, public arts projects, and an annual design awards program. His other clients have included Alliance for the Arts and National Cooperative Bank (NCB).

As Vice President of E-Commerce and Business Development at Watch World International, the world’s largest retailer of sports and fashion watches, Mr. Hammond built the company’s e-commerce division and comprehensive marketing plan and successfully launched the company’s transactional Web site. Watch World was acquired by Sunglass Hut in April 2000.

As a founding team member and then as a board member, Mr. Hammond helped to launch thebody.com, the largest online HIV/AIDS information resource in 1996. Thebody.com achieved profitability three years after its launch and remains one of the few consistently profitable health-related Web sites.

In 1994 he helped launch and subsequently sell an in-hotel catalog company. He then helped toHe then change its business model to expand to airlines, where the company was able to capture 22% of the in-flight market by signing an agreement with American Airlines, Northwest Airlines and TWA.

His first job was at Ernst & Young, working within the firm’s internal strategic consulting group.

Boards and Affiliations:

Body Health Resources, Board of Directors (1998 - present)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ex-Officio Trustee (2002 - 2005)

Open House New York, founding Advisory Board member (2002 – present)

Precipice Alliance, founding Board member (2006 – present)

Mr. Hammond holds a BA with Honors in History from Princeton University. Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas he has lived in the West Village since 1994. He is also a part-time artist.

Source: The Dallas Architecture Forum

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