Mikyoung Kim, Founding Principal

Mikyoung Kim is the founder and design director of Mikyoung Kim Design. Her work is focused on bringing the science and art of resiliency and healthy living into the landscape experience. She is known for culturally significant designs that serve as a powerful tool to celebrate the beauty of the collective human experience. Mikyoung’s diverse background in design, music and sculpture has shaped her body of humanistic work, blurring the boundaries between the landscape, ecology and architecture. From large scale urban and waterfront parks to botanic gardens, her work reflects a deep commitment to memorable place making that captures the public imagination.

Throughout her career, she has crafted an exceptional body of work that has been highlighted in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Geographic, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record, Dwell, Surface, Garden Design, and the Chicago Tribune. Mikyoung is a recipient of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and the ASLA National Design Medal. She was named by Architecture Digest as an AD Innovator and is a Fellow with the American Society of Landscape Architects. Mikyoung's firm has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies in the world.

A frequent international speaker, she has spoken at Yale University, the Gardner Museum, Stanford University and the National Building Museum in Washington DC. She has served on numerous juries including the Rome Prize jury and the Heinz Awards. Mikyoung currently serves on the Mayor's appointed Civic Design Commission in Boston. She has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and is a Professor Emerita at the Rhode Island School of Design where she was awarded the college's Dean's Leadership Award. Mikyoung was trained as a concert pianist at Oberlin College and Conservatory, studied Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and public art at MIT. While at Harvard, she was an Olmsted Scholar and received the Norman T. Newton Prize and the Jacob Weidenman Prize.

Monica Rourke, Designer

Monica is compelled by the dialectic nature of human/material relationships and is intrigued by the interface of material and atmospheric conditions and human perception and experience. Her artistic background contributes to her design strategies for thoughtful landscapes and sensitive, sensorially-engaging design. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Dayton and a Master’s in landscape architecture from Cornell University.

Ian Downing, Associate Principal

Ian is an associate principal and is the technical director for the studio. He manages projects throughout their entirety, with a special focus on ensuring a smooth process from design development through final construction and implementation. At MYKD, Ian facilitates a dialogue between designers and builders to enhance landscape details and streamline the construction process. Ian appreciates how the design-build environment sparks rapid innovation, new construction methods, and material combinations. With an eye towards sustainability, he implements environmentally responsible design strategies and has extensive experience with LEED projects. Ian has lectured extensively on the importance of responsive and sustainable detailing including presentations at the national American Society of Landscape Architects Convention. A graduate of Wentworth Institute of Technology, Ian has a master’s and bachelor’s degree in Architecture.

Greta Crispen, Project Designer

As a creative thinker Greta seeks to reimagine the built environment as a site that fosters ecological diversity and community building. She’s most interested in how design can advance community stewardship of land and re-position ecological systems as integral actors in the built environment. Trained as and Architect and Planner, she is focused on multiple scales of design throughout her work. Greta is a designer on the Bal Harbour Waterfront Project in Florida and also is on the team for the Construction of the Boston Children’s Hospital Hale Building Gardens.

Greta holds an Masters in Architecture from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture with a focus on planning and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Florida with a degree in Architecture.

Hyosun Yoon, Associate

Hyosun is focused on participating in the collective design processes and critical problem solving required to successfully engage with the exciting body of work the Studio is building. She strives to resolve complex issues in landscape design through multi-disciplinary research and analysis.

Through much experience, Hyosun steadily works through design and management of numerous projects ranging from Concept to Construction Documents. She’s led design teams for the Piedmont Botanic Garden Masterplan, the Long Hill and Sedwick Garden Masterplan, and the Wellesley Botanic Garden Masterplan.

Hyosun holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is a registered Landscape Architect

Ryan Vorndran, Designer

Ryan brings a diverse set of interests to his design process with a deep understanding of the latest technologies in CNC routing and 5- axis and 3-d printing, alongside a love of plant communities and ecological processes. His research has focused on studying the impacts of climate change on cultural memory and social expression. Ryan has both onsite experience executing landscapes as well as work experience in the Holmes Fabrication Laboratory.

Ryan received his Masters of Landscape Architecture at Ohio State University and a B.A. in Economics and Finance from the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Bryan Chou, Associate Principal

Bryan Chou is an associate principal and senior design leader at Mikyoung Kim Design. Under Bryan’s leadership, the firm’s cross-disciplinary design process has been guided by a research-based ideology. Bryan has presented at numerous conferences, including the Greater and Greener Parks Conference and the Cooper Hewitt’s Design Symposium. Bryan is active in the local and national design community and has served as a jury member for the Philadelphia Airport Image Maker Competitions and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects’ awards program. He has also been a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Pathways to Inclusion.

Bryan is a registered Landscape Architect and holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a B.A. in Environmental Planning from the University of Washington. He has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has been a guest critic at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Yufei Yan, Designer

Yufei believes that landscape architecture has the power to regenerate and transform the environment bringing about a positive change that builds unique connections between communities and their context. She gravitates towards the conservation of the natural environment to provide sustainable design solutions through a balance of urban development to coincide with nature.

Yufei’s professional work includes international experience on sites in Beijing City and Chongqing City, China. At MYKD she’s contributed to the Michigan Central Park Masterplan project and the New Science Hill Masterplan at Wellesley College. She received her bachelor’s degree of Landscape Architecture at SUNY ESF and her MLA degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Heejung Shin, Designer

Heejung is passionate about urban design projects that support resiliency, connect fragmented communities, and restore habitats and environmental systems. Heejung has worked and studied in both the US and Seoul, Korea giving her a unique outlook on ecologically and environmentally functioning urban landscape design strategies. She brings an interest in creating equitable, livable and resilient cities, with a particular focus on design-driven engagement and visual storytelling. Her work at MYKD includes masterplanning design for the Wellesley Science Hill Campus and resiliency parks in Boston in the Seaport District.

Trained as both an architect and landscape architect, she brings numerous years of experience in both fields to her projects. Heejung holds a master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

Yufan Gao, Associate

Originally drawn to Landscape Architecture from interests stemming from sustainable design, Yufan continues to enjoy the multitude of ways that resiliency shapes landscape design. With a background in landscape and textile design, Yufan embraces a design philosophy that will transform a site through minimal intervention as an act of framing and seeding possibilities. Yufan has taught at the Boston Architectural College and has been a visiting critic at the Rhode Island School of Design and Wentworth Institute of Technology. Yufan is a registered landscape architect in Massachusetts and holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Pamela Riel, Accounts Manager

Pam works with the administrative team and oversees MYKD’s finances. She has worked in finance for more than two decades and supports clients and staff on day-to-day account management and execution. Pam holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Assumption College.

Jessica Hamilton, Senior Associate

Jess oversees the day-to-day of highly urbanized sites working from concept development to construction. She has extensive experience in managing complex teams and overseeing coordination of consultants throughout the life of a project. Jess is a registered Landscape Architect.

Her professional experience has equipped her with the ability to think critically and perform as both a team leader and a strong collaborator.

With a focus on health and wellness, Jess has contributed her leadership to the Ford Michigan Central Project and the first LGBTQ seniors housing campus in Massachusetts.

Jess received her bachelor’s degree in interactive marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology and her master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Washington.

Emmett Gregory, Senior Associate

Emmett is an associate and senior project manager. His experience with large waterfront public parks and urban renewal projects gives him the skills to lead design teams on many resilient focused planning projects across the firm.

Emmett is passionate about working with people to better their communities through design. He enjoys the creative process and believes first and foremost the design must be effective and address the problems at hand. At MYKD, Emmett helps to guide a team of designers on variety of projects from the Texas Medical Center research campuses to urban infill and public park spaces in downtown Boston.

At MYKD, Emmett helps to guide a team of designers on variety of projects from the Texas Medical Center research campuses to urban infill and public park spaces in downtown Boston. Emmett holds a Bachelor’s in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia.

Michele Turrini, Designer

Michele enjoys investigating the complex ecology of our cities to reveal the nuances of the urban landscape in subtle ways. With keen attention to sustainability, Michele is continually exploring how to integrate landscape into the built environment in innovative and environmentally responsible ways. With experience in architecture and resiliency, his work focuses on unearthing invisible information through interdisciplinary analysis and creating intimate interactions with nature.

At MYKD he is currently working on masterplan projects in Detroit, Michigan, and Boston, MA. Michele holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Margaret Gerhart, Associate

Margaret believes that landscape design has the power to heal communities which have been historically bisected. As a senior project manager, she has worked on large scale urban developments and resiliency projects from coast to coast in the U.S. She is interested in work on cross-cultural sites, including an independent research study at the University of Pennsylvania on the Korean DMZ ‘Across Borders: Movement and Migration’, which she’s presented at the World Congress. Margaret has always been passionate about mentoring and uplifting BIPOC students within the design field, working with the Center for Architecture Foundation, Spark! and NAMLA. At Penn, she received the 2015 AIANYC Scholarship and the 2016 Anne Fisher Graduate Fellowship. She is the design manager for the Ford Michigan Central Mobility Platform and the Bal Harbour Waterfront Park.

Margaret holds a BFA in Industrial Design from Carnegie Mellon University with a dual Master of Architecture and Masters of Landscape Architecture and Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a registered Landscape Architect in Michigan.

Katherine Hill, Designer

Katherine is interested in biophilic design strategies that unify architectural elements with landscape architecture. She strongly believes in the physical, mental, and social benefits of re-imagining the relationship between the two disciplines and the sustainability opportunities therein. Additionally, she highly values the importance of teaching and volunteering as a medium for design exposure and likes to spend her free time volunteering in her local community.

She was trained as both an architect and landscape architect, gaining experience at several design firms across both disciplines. Katherine holds a bachelor’s in architecture and a master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Tennessee.

Lu Dai, Designer

Lu is interested in pushing disciplinary boundaries and investigating the relationship between, ecology, landscape, urbanism, and architecture. Lu believes landscapes can be the cure for humans both physically as well as mentally bringing healthy living to the community. Her previous design experience equips her with a multifaceted understanding of landscape, environment, and architecture, as well as a diverse skill set. She is focused on the process of design at MYKD working through numerous iterations of design work through Rhino and Grasshopper.

Lu received her Masters in Landscape Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Alek De Mott, Project Designer

Trained as an Architect and Landscape Architect, Alek has a great interest and appreciation for a wide variety of design styles of the built landscape, with a particular interest in landscape’s connection to history.

Alek is a recipient of the Susan Nelson Fleiss Travel Scholarship supporting international travel for the purpose of research, design, or personal development.

Prior to joining MYKD, Alek has worked at Studio Gang and SHoP architects. Alek received his Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia. In his free time, his passions include hiking, biking, and kayaking. He’s a former Potomac River guide in DC.

Huachen Zhang, Designer

Huachen fully immerses himself in all phases of the design process. His interests lie at the intersection of social and ecological sciences. Huachen is currently working on a series of neighborhood parks that bring micro forest design with resiliency fountains in Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts.

Huachen received his Masters of Landscape Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. This passion extends outside of the office where Huachen explores nature by hiking and biking as well as being an avid photographer.

Nicholas Neville, Designer

Nick is a designer and marketing assistant. His focus has been in developing construction details and coordinating construction administration processes. Currently, Nick is working on the Boston Children’s Hospital Hale Building Gardens Construction oversight as well as the Mass General Brigham Hospital design. Nick received his bachelor’s degree in political science and business administration from University of New Hampshire and has a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the Boston Architectural Center.

Karla Bazam, Administrative Assistant

Karla oversees the day-to-day operations of the MYKD office and supports the marketing team. They are interested on researching how to improve the relationship between nature and humans through design. In their spare time, Karla likes to be involved in any outdoor or art related activity.

Tong Shen, Designer

Tong strives towards designs that are sensitive and responsive to the community, it's culture, history, and ecology. With an interdisciplinary background in engineering and the arts, Tong approaches landscape design as a creative medium that can forge connections between people, spaces, and ideas. Her work focuses on exploring and reflecting “genius loci”—the spirit of place in multi-scale spaces of urban areas through landscape intervention. With a foundation in research and practice, she has a passion for designing, creating, and implementing new strategies to rebuild connections between human and environment, especially in the broad context of challenges from capitalism-driven globalization and climate change.

Tong received her MLA from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.