After graduating from Odessa Construction College in 1932, and Odessa Civil Engineering Institute in 1939, from 1940 he worked in Chisinäu. He found work de- signing buildings with the construction bureau "Dorproekt", on the Odessa-Chisinäu railway. From 1955 to 1993 heworked at the "Moldgiprostroy" design institute, where he was head of the Architecture and Construction Department N° .2 Palatnik designed a number of schools, preschools and maternity hospitals of the city, using elements of Moldovan folk architecture and local materials such as lime- stone. Among his works are the City Theatre and Theatre Square (1936) in Tiraspol, and the railway hospital (1954), Riscani Palace of Culture (1971), the 17th Railway School (now the lyceum "Minerva"), and 16-storey complex of three residences on Kuibyshev Street (now Calea lesilor), in Chisinau. During the demolition of the his- toric Jewish cemetery in Chisinau in 1959, he was one of the surveyors of the tomb- stones. David Palatnik is one of the founders and member of the Union of Architects of Moldova since 1940. On several occasions he was elected to the governing bodies of the Union of Architects. The projects and buildings of the architect D. Palatnik were repeatedly ap- preciated with governmental distinctions and medals ofthe Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR.