Danny Samuels

Danny Marc Samuels, FAIA, is a Professor in Practice of Architecture and the Codirector of Construct. After apprenticing with Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente in Paris and Venice, he founded, with partners John J. Casbarian and Robert H. Timme, the design firm, Taft Architects, in 1973. The work of this Houston-based office has received over 60 major design awards and has appeared in over 200 articles in books and journals worldwide. Samuels, with his partners, has lectured at over 100 professional and educational forums, nationally and internationally. Together they are recipients of the Houston AIA Educator Award and the Houston AIA Firm Award. Samuels is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and in 1991 was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.

Samuels' work through the Rice Building Workshop (RBW) with Associate Director Nonya Grenader, and now through Construct with Codirector Andrew Colopy, has resulted in a stream of realized projects: over the past twenty-five years, more than seven hundred students have designed and built projects at various scales in the community from exhibit venues in Houston museums to affordable housing at Project Row Houses in Houston's Third Ward. The RBW received the 2004 NCARB Prize for the "Integration of Practice and Education" from the National Council of Registration Boards and the "Collaborative Practice Award" in 2005 from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. In 2015-16, the RBW collaboration with Project Row Houses was the subject of exhibitions at Harvard GSD, AIA NY, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum, as well as the book Core Houses.