Dean Sakamoto is a practicing architect and educator with areas of expertise in sustainability, resilience, public education of topics related to the built environment. Sakamoto’s numerous architectural and urban design projects, exhibitions and publications are highly regarded for their sensitivity to place, audience and practical considerations. He founded his Honolulu and New Haven-based firm, Dean Sakamoto Architects LLC (DSA) in 1999.

Research and creative problem solving is the core of Sakamoto’s endeavors. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon; a Master of Architecture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and Masters of Environmental Design from Yale University. As an educator, he served on the faculty of the Yale School of Architecture from 1998-2011 and taught previously at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture, Pratt Institute and Chaminade University of Honolulu. Also at Yale, he was the recipient of the prestigious Gertraud A. Wood Traveling Fellowship and Alpha Rho Chi Medal, and continues to serve as Associate Fellow at Benjamin Silliman College. For the City of New Haven, he served on the Mayor’s Cultural Affairs Commission, Chapel West Special Services District Advisory Board and the board of Sites Projects, Inc., a public art organization.

With a special focus on fine design and collaborative, personal service, Sakamoto applies over twenty five years of professional experience to his diversified research-based design practice. The success of DSA’s work is driven by Sakamoto’s passionate leadership, hands-on approach and elemental artistic sensibility which is collaboratively applied toward a joint belief in client-centric and civic-minded service.