Samuel DeBartolo

Architect based in the Southwest, designing carefully crafted, sensitive containers for public life. My work treats atmosphere as structure—light, shadow, mass, and material composed with restraint and care to hold people well, and invite awe. I’m drawn to architecture that doesn’t perform for itself, but quietly frames the ordinary stories of life as they unfold. The goal is to make buildings pulse with an echo of the divine.

• Carlos Jiménez, carlos@carlosjimenezstudio.com
• Wendell Burnette, wendell@wendellburnettearchitects.com
• Jesus Robles, jesus@dustdb.com

• Waypoint: Along the Bayou, Rice University Graduate thesis responding to distressing health statistics on the world's social culture. The project observed the need for physical and social infrastructure along Houston's Buffalo Bayou resulting in a episodic network of experiences of light and water., 05/01/24
• Examinations in Relief Architecture: The Tukul of East Africa, The primary author of a small publication produced by a non-profit in Texas and Uganda - Every Shelter. Analyzing the vernacular architecture of Northern Uganda and proposing design modifications in response to refugee feedback., 09/01/23

• AIA Arizona Distinguished Architecture Merit Award, Sojourn Montrose, 05/01/25
• H. Russel Pitman Graduate Fellowship, Rice University, Travel Grant, 03/01/23
• Top Prize, Totalization Design Studio, Rice University, 03/01/23
• Top Prize, Richard Kennedy Prize, University of Arizona, 05/01/21