MAHAN RYKIEL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Biography
Aaron Lewis received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University in 2020. In the same year he was recognized as an Olmsted Scholar Finalist. He's a fan of all things urban with a particular interest in urban revitalization with a consideration of equity and justice for present and future communities. This is work he has been involved in from his time working with rural communities in central Iowa as well as Baltimore City. In his free time, he enjoys reading about Urban design and development as well as exploring Baltimore and the surrounding area on his bike and taking in the history of the area.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Principal
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Biography
Anthony earned a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture from Morgan State University in 2022, where he was the recipient of an ASLA Merit Award in his last year of study. As a final project, he created site selection and design guidelines for urban farming in Baltimore City, applying knowledge and insight from his 10-year career in urban agriculture. His hands-on experience in farming has contributed to an interest in constructability and the technical aspects of the Landscape Architecture profession. Anthony's other interests include the longevity of built landscapes, and how what is built in our cities today will be used and interpreted by people of the future. At Mahan Rykiel, Anthony assists with CAD, BIM, Rendering, and other digital design tools.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Biography
Ben Chronister joined MRA in Spring of 2019 after graduating with a bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from Penn State University, where he was recognized with the 2019 ASLA Honor Award and 2018 Design Excellence Award. His studies there focused on the ties between landscape architecture, food systems, and social and environmental justice.
Job Titles:
- Communications Director
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Biography
Bryan Dunn joined Mahan Rykiel in 2017 and is the Director of Communications and Business Development. Bryan brings over a decade of experience working in communications, public relations, and running multimedia campaigns for both the public and private sector. Prior to working at Mahan Rykiel, he served as the Marketing Director for Baltimore County Department of Economic and Workforce Development, the Creative Director for Kearney O'Doherty Public Affairs (KOFA), and previously worked as the Creative Director for the Baltimore County Executive Office under two consecutive administrations.
Bryan earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art and Design in 2002. When not at work, Bryan enjoys photography, painting, backpacking, serving as a board member of the Seton Hill Neighborhood Association and living in Baltimore.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Marketing Director
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Biography
Cynthia Fraser joined Mahan Rykiel Associates in 1998 and is the Marketing Director, handling all teaming requests, proposals, public relations and marketing efforts for the firm. Previously, she has worked in public relations and as a television producer. Prior to joining Mahan Rykiel, she was a Writer/Producer at ABC 2 News in Baltimore and the Producer of the environmental nature program, "Outdoors Maryland" on MPT. During her 15 years as a television producer, Cynthia garnered more than 15 writing and producing awards, including two Capital Region Emmies and a CINE Golden Eagle, an international producing award. She has also worked on two Congressional campaigns, in 1994 as the Communications Director for Gerry Brewster, and right out of college, as the Campaign Manager of the Harford County Office for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. She has written for various media types including print, radio, and television.
She holds a Master's Degree in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A from Dickinson College, where she graduated cum laude and developed her own major in Communications, combining her interests in Television Production, English, French, Art, Writing and Photography, and was a Nisbet Scholar. While an undergraduate, she interned with BBC Radio Kent, where she produced segments for air and studied for a semester in London. She was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), the National Leadership Honorary Society. She has served on the Vestry as Registrar for her church and currently volunteers for the Outreach Committee. She enjoys organic gardening and photography.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
- Landscape Designer / ADMINISTRATION
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Senior Associate
James holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Penn State University where he was awarded the ASLA Honor Award and studied abroad in Rome, IT at the Pantheon Institute. Current projects include Hillside Student Housing at University of Pittsburgh, the Health and Human Services Center at Morgan State University, and the City Dock redevelopment in Annapolis, Maryland. James joined Mahan Rykiel Associates in 2011.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Senior Associate
John Merritt began and spent most of his career in New York City working with a mix of three-person mom ‘n' pop offices to multi-national firms. During his 20 years in landscape architecture, John has developed a specialty in rooftop applications. He is interested in bio-engineering methods proven to solve landscape problems in both urban and rural environments as well as shared streets principles that return our communities to pedestrians. During a two-year stint in the United Kingdom, he was fascinated by the varying attitudes designers and engineers have about their home landscape and the different technical approaches they use to address similar challenges we experience in the States.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Biography
Katherine earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from Cornell University in 2021, where she received the E. Gorton Davis Travel Fellowship to study coastal landscapes in Northern Norway. She has worked as a research assistant on multiple climate adaptation projects, focusing on coastal retreat and flood-prone communities in both rural and urban regions of New York. In 2019, Katherine served as a summer fellow at The Cultural Landscape Foundation and worked to archive the legacy of landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander. Drawing on a background in creative nonfiction and ecology, she believes writing and making are invaluable design methods. She views design research and landscape architecture as powerful tools for generating equitable, ecological futures for human and nonhuman communities.
Job Titles:
- Contract Administrator
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Biography
Lucy Hill joined Mahan Rykiel Associates in 2007. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a Master of Arts degree in English with an emphasis on writing from the University of Maryland, College Park. She serves as MRA's Contract Administrator, responsible for the financial and contractual management of prime projects involving multiple sub-consultants, and numerous sub-contracts with architects and other design professionals. Recent projects include Eager Park in Baltimore, Maryland, McKeldin Mall Landscape Renewal at the University of Maryland, College Park, Symphony Woods Park in Columbia, Maryland, Albemarle Town Center, Mosaic Mixed Use, and McIntire Park in Virginia, as well as numerous retail projects up and down the East Coast and overseas. Lucy also manages and maintains MRA's multi-state professional licenses.
Before joining Mahan Rykiel Associates, Lucy taught English composition at the college level, as well as English as a Foreign Language both in the U.S. and in West Africa while in the U.S. Peace Corps. She has extensive experience in office administration and served as Legal Assistant for two Howard County, Maryland general practice law firms. Her writing skills and love of the law make her a unique asset to the firm. Outside the office she enjoy music and writing.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Operations Director
Mark Pelusi has over 25 years of experience practicing landscape architecture and urban design and will join Partner/CFO Cathy Snellinger and Chief Staffing Director Tom McGilloway as the Chief Operations Officer. Mark has worked in a wide range of sectors and on numerous high-profile projects including Frank Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial, North Shore Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh, the National Museum of the United States Army, MGM Grand at National Harbor, McCormick World Headquarters and Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C. His portfolio is illustrated by institutional, corporate, government, and private sector developments showing his ability to design and manage a job from conceptual design through construction administration.
Job Titles:
- Design Director
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Megan Griffith has been a planner with Mahan Rykiel Associates since graduating from Morgan State University's Master of City and Regional Planning program in 2014. In 2013, Megan was awarded APA's Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy Division Student Fellowship, which supported her research and professional project, Deep Ecological Urbanism: Ecology, efficiency, and ethics in urban design. Upon graduating, Megan earned the 2014 AICP Outstanding Student Award. Megan brings prior planning and design experience from the Baltimore City Department of Planning, Office of Sustainability, where she co-authored, edited, and formatted the Disaster Preparedness Project and Plan, as well as the 2012 and 2013 Annual Sustainability Reports. She will be sitting for the AICP exam in November 2015.
As a vital part of the parks, planning, and urban design studio team, Megan contributes her abilities as an urban planner and environmental designer. With a holistic and human-centered approach, her expertise includes community engagement, sustainability planning, campus and park master planning, economic development, and comprehensive and land use planning. Megan's interest and passion in planning are what invest her into communities near and far, and her love of nature and the environment leads to planning efforts that support the vitality of the planet and the lives of all those-human and non-human alike-who inhabit this earth.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Biography
Mohan's background in art informs her design ethos. She values the engagement and diverse functions of landscape architecture and the formation of genius loci. Her craft approach enables her work across various disciplines considering the nuanced connection between humans and nature. Mohan holds a master's degree in landscape architecture from Rhode Island School of Design and a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from the China Academy of Art. As a multidisciplinary designer, she's well qualified with technical, graphic, and communication skills, working innovatively within the team.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer
Biography
Ned offers years of experience as a designer successful in high-end residential, living shoreline, and urban landscape architecture projects. His knowledge of design, rendering, and leadership of masons, carpenters, and landscape foremen has improved livelihoods on numerous projects in Maryland with a concentration around the Chesapeake Bay. Improving homeowners' property and restoring coastlines coincide with his passion for experiencing the beauty and creation our natural world offers, and with like-minded teammates and clients, he finds his work is all the more valuable.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- President
Job Titles:
- Associate
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Principal
Rudraksha Jhaveri holds a Bachelor in Architecture from Raheja School of Architecture in Mumbai, India and a Master of Landscape Architecture from The Ohio State University. Prior to joining Mahan Rykiel, Rudraksha worked in India for three years as an architect and landscape designer for Kishore D Pradhan and also free-lanced as a landscape designer in Mumbai for one year. Rudraksha's landscape design focuses on the creation of infrastructures in the urban fabric to create a more functional, productive, meaningful and
Job Titles:
- Associate
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Principal
Scott C. Scarfone, ASLA, PLA, has over thirty-years of a broad range of experience as a landscape architect in design, planning, construction and conservation. Scott has a diverse body of work in both the private and public sectors. He was the founder of Oasis Design Group, a nationally recognized landscape architecture firm winning numerous design awards for their work.
Scott has garnered a national reputation for his strategic and master planning work with 21+ public gardens (botanic gardens and arboreta) nationwide. He has written and taught on landscape architectural and related design and conservation topics and as a sought-after instructor. He has lectured at some of the nation's most prestigious institutions, botanical gardens and arboreta and at many international, national, and regional conferences. Advancing his pedagogy of planting design, both as a horticulturist and landscape architect, Scott wrote the book Professional Planting Design: An Architectural and Horticultural Approach for Creating Mixed Bed Plantings (Published by Wiley) which won a 2007 Award of Merit by the Maryland and Potomac Chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects. The book is used nationwide in colleges and universities as a text. Scott is a dynamic, knowledgeable public communicator and oversees and facilitates public planning and design workshops with key stakeholders for his clients nationwide.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Vice President
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Principal
- Principal / Design
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Senior Associate
Terry Burns has over 20 years experience in landscape architectural design and project management. He has prepared site designs for projects ranging from private residences to multi-use developments and corporate campuses. Terry's strengths in horticulture, garden design and environmentally sensitive projects have allowed him to work on such projects as arboretums, roof deck gardens, residential masterplans, downtown streetscapes, and restorative gardens.
Job Titles:
- Controller
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Planning Director
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Senior Associate
Currently, Travis has been working on Eager Park in Baltimore, 500 Walnut in Philadelphia, and Mediterranean Village in Coral Gables. He also has a strong passion for construction details and illustrative graphics.
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- DESIGN STAFF Member
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Landscape Designer