Sam Marshall Architects

What Sam Marshall Architects does

Sam Marshall Architects is a privately held architectural and planning firm founded in 1962 and headquartered at 325 S. Palafox Street in downtown Pensacola, Florida. The firm provides comprehensive architectural design, master planning, and related consulting services through a deliberately small team of approximately six professionals, including four architects led by President David Alsop (with the firm since 1983) and Vice-President Mike Marshall (since 1988). It serves three primary verticals in the Florida panhandle region: educational institutions (K-12 schools, community colleges, and state colleges), government entities (courthouses, law enforcement facilities, and justice centers), and financial institutions (regional credit unions). Notable clients include Northwest Florida State College, Pensacola State College, Escambia High School, Okaloosa County Courthouse, Santa Rosa County Courthouse, Gulf Breeze Police Department, and four credit unions across the region.

The firm's service portfolio is organized into three categories: educational building design (science buildings, learning resource centers, visual arts centers, amphitheaters, observatories, school facilities), commercial and governmental building design (credit unions, courthouses, police departments, justice centers), and master planning services for educational campuses. Team members hold LEED AP, CDT, and multi-state architectural licensure (Florida, Alabama, Louisiana), supporting credentials required for public-sector procurement. The firm relies on industry-standard design software and methodologies, with no proprietary technology stack or AI-driven capabilities disclosed.

The business model is project-based professional services: client engagement is direct, supplemented by competitive bidding for public-sector work, with revenue generated from design fees scoped to project size, complexity, and client requirements. The firm operates exclusively in the Florida panhandle (Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa counties), with no geographic expansion beyond the region disclosed. Project acquisition is driven by reputation, direct client relationships, and referrals, with the website serving as a portfolio showcase. Two projects (Escambia High School Performing Arts Center, Niceville Landing) are currently under construction, and an unbuilt Marine Fisheries Hatchery project signals exploratory work in civic/environmental infrastructure.

Name

Sam Marshall Architects

Legal name

Sam Marshall Architects

Website

https://sammarshallarch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1962

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Sam Marshall Architects is a small, privately held architectural firm founded in 1962 in Pensacola, Florida. It provides architectural design and master planning services across three Florida panhandle verticals: educational institutions, government entities, and credit unions, with a team of approximately six professionals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Architectural Services

NAICS

Architectural Services (54131), Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services (5413)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Architectural Design Services (BPAHAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Urban Planning & Master Planning (BPAHAKAD)

Keywords

• Architectural design services
• Educational facility design
• Commercial architecture services
• Master planning services
• Government building design

Headquarters

HQ city

Pensacola

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Architecture and Planning Services: Project-based professional services revenue generated through architectural design, master planning, and related consulting services for institutional and commercial clients. Projects range from educational facilities to governmental buildings and credit unions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Sam Marshall Architects is an architectural and planning firm that provides comprehensive design services for educational, commercial, governmental, and master planning projects across the Florida Panhandle region. The firm delivers projects from concept through completion, including science and learning resource centers, visual arts and performing arts facilities, courthouses, police departments, justice centers, credit union branches, and campus master plans. Services are delivered by a small team of licensed architects, including LEED AP and CDT certified professionals, from the firm's Pensacola headquarters.

Product overview

Sam Marshall Architects is an architectural and planning firm founded in 1962 that provides comprehensive design services through its core architectural services practice. The firm specializes in three main service categories: Educational Building Design (including science buildings, learning resource centers, visual arts centers, amphitheaters, observatories, and school facilities), Commercial and Governmental Building Design (credit unions, courthouses, police departments, justice centers), and Master Planning Services for educational institutions. The firm maintains a streamlined, small staff approach while managing large commercial projects, with services delivered by a team of licensed architects including LEED AP certified professionals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Architectural Services Comprehensive architectural design and planning services delivered from concept through completion for educational, commercial, governmental, and master planning projects across the Florida Panhandle region.
• Educational Building Design Specialized architectural design for educational facilities including science buildings, learning resource centers, visual arts centers, amphitheaters, observatories, and K-12 school facilities for public schools, middle schools, high schools, community colleges, and state colleges.
• Commercial and Governmental Building Design Architectural services for commercial and governmental facilities including credit union branches, courthouses, police departments, and justice centers for county and municipal government agencies and financial institutions.
• Master Planning Services Strategic campus and facility master planning services for colleges and educational institutions to guide long-term development, phased growth, and optimization of existing campus assets.

Quantifiable outcome

• Established 1962 - over 60 years of continuous operation

Named customers11 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• SchenkelShultz Architecture: Florida-headquartered architectural firm with a much broader footprint and significantly larger portfolio of educational, civic, and commercial projects. Competes for the same public-sector RFPs in Florida but at greater scale and with more resources.
• HKS Architects: National architecture firm with Florida offices and major practice in educational facility design and civic projects. Larger global competitor that occasionally enters the same RFP pools as SMA for high-profile public work.
• PGAL: Large multi-region architecture firm with a strong Florida presence and major public-sector practice in civic, educational, and correctional facilities. Overlaps with SMA's governmental and institutional buildings focus at a much larger scale.
• Harvard Jolly Architecture: Florida-based architecture firm with deep K-12 and higher education portfolio across the Southeast. Larger and more diverse than SMA but addresses the same institutional client base for campus master planning and educational facility design.
• RLF Architecture: Florida-headquartered architecture firm with a long history in public-sector work, including courthouses, civic facilities, and educational buildings. Comparable client mix but much larger portfolio and operational scale.

Direct peers

• Bullock Tice Associates: Long-established Pensacola architecture firm with comparable scope across civic, educational, and commercial work in the Florida Panhandle. Similar size and regional-focus as SMA, making it a head-to-head competitor for local institutional projects.
• DAG Architects: Panhandle-based architecture firm with a similar profile: small team serving educational, governmental, and commercial clients in Northwest Florida. Directly competes for the same institutional RFPs in the Pensacola-Escambia-Santa Rosa corridor.
• Caldwell Associates Architecture: Florida-licensed architecture firm that competes in the same regional market for educational and municipal facility design. Comparable mid-size practice with overlap in public-sector client base.

Regional players

• BRPH Architects-Engineers: Florida-based architecture and engineering firm with a strong presence in the Panhandle and aerospace/civic markets. Comparable regional footprint and competes for some of the same governmental and educational projects in Northwest Florida.

Emerging players

• ADES Architecture: Florida-based architecture firm with a focus on educational and governmental facility design. Comparable size and niche orientation to SMA, making it a direct regional competitor for institutional work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sam-marshall-architects

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sam Marshall Architects