Meet New Principal: Sam Rajamanickam, AIA, LEED AP

Since he joined Design Collective, Inc. (DCI) in 1994, Sam Rajamanickam has played a key role in some of the firm’s most transformative urban development projects. His leadership experience covers a full range of construction typologies and focuses on national, regional and local large-scale student housing, urban mixed-use and transit-oriented development (TOD) projects.

As Principal, Mr. Rajamanickam brings his extensive process management expertise and leadership to the firm’s most challenging and complex multi-stakeholder development projects, serving as the primary client liaison and facilitator across all project phases, from initial design to ribbon-cutting.

• Under his management, DCI developed the Livingston Living-Learning Community at Rutgers University, an award-winning integrated student housing complex that set a new standard among campus mixed-use communities.
• Mr. Rajamanickam led the design and development of the trend-setting West Side Hall University of New Haven, a groundbreaking residential center that responds to the demands of incoming students while supporting University goals to create more interactive campus communities.
• Exemplifying Mr. Rajamanickam’s expertise in urban revitalization, Johns Hopkins’ Charles Commons is a fully integrated “vertical campus” that both strengthened the University and brought new life to the struggling Charles Village retail corridor surrounding it.
• Mr. Rajamanickam’s expertise in urban mixed-use and TOD strategy can be seen in The Fitzgerald, which transformed a brownfield parking lot into a transit-oriented mixed-use community encompassing retail, residential and parking – one of just 12 TOD - ULI Design Excellence winners globally.
• He also led the development of the Pallas, Pike & Rose in Rockville, Maryland, a 19-story high-rise building and another example of award-winning TOD. 

Mr. Rajamanickam is committed to continuing the firm’s pursuit of projects that support urban renewal and neighborhood enrichment in Baltimore and nationwide. Over the years, he has been instrumental in adaptive reuse and revitalization projects at DCI including Baltimore’s American Can Company building in Canton and Tide Point in Locust Point, which now serves as the headquarters campus for Under Armour.

Mr. Rajamanickam has delivered presentations on architectural planning and design topics to the Urban Land Institute and serves as a regular jury member for the graduate architecture program at Morgan State University, where he earned his Master’s degree in architecture. He earned is BS in Architecture from the Manipal Institute of Technology in India.