R. Sean Darnell, RA | Associate

Approachable. Materiality-Focused. Craftsperson.

Project Architect R. Sean Darnell is a technical architect who thrives in documentation yet can easily transition to any role that the team needs--from project management to design support. His love of materiality in architecture and determining connections between different materials stems from his varied background in craft--including pottery, sculpture, and furniture making.

“I let the material do the talking—guiding me and showing me what it’s supposed to do—what that moment of connection has to be. Everything that I enjoy is efficiently and beautifully doing what we’re asked as architects while making it constructible.”

As a self-described “tumbleweed who goes where the wind blows,” Sean has practiced architecture in Montana; Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; and Seattle. This has exposed him to a variety of building typologies from healthcare, commercial, and mixed-use to multi-family, civic, and institutional, and further solidified Sean’s belief that architecture should be grounded in the context of place.

“One of my favorite projects is an apartment building sited on the edge of the Alphabet District in Portland–a historic neighborhood of mansions from the 1880s to 1950s as well as the beautiful Temple Beth Israel. The design process involved walking the area to capture the flavor of the neighborhood through photographs and sketching front doors and pediments that spoke to me, and then translating that into the design. That’s the wonderful part of architecture—collecting, deconstructing, and translating a place into a thing.”

Sean’s interests outside of architecture center around things that spin—vinyl records, bicycles, pottery wheels, and lathes for woodworking. Sean and his daughter have been building the family vinyl collection over the last seven years, making sure to check for local record stores any time they travel. Often travel is by bicycle, on a single, fixed-gear bike that Sean has built himself, because it allows him to take in the beauty of his surroundings at a leisurely pace.

Architectural Specialties

Justice & Public Safety
Civic
Tribal

Education

Master of Architecture, University of Mexico

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Harding University

Registration

Architecture, States of Washington, Colorado, and Texas