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FIRM

Founded in 1983, Mahan Rykiel Associates is a 35 person landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm with an office in Baltimore Maryland. The firm works across scales to imagine and realize projects that enrich the human condition and support vibrant natural systems. Research and discovery guide project development that range from public parks, civic plazas, state infrastructure, downtown and neighborhood plans, academic institutions, corporate campuses, mixeduse housing, private residences, healthcare facilities, hotels, and commercial centers. The firm cultivates this diversity to deepen and broaden its creative capacity to shape the built environment. Active collaboration across disciplines and sectors ensures that technical knowledge and resources are leveraged in support of each project.

MRA is a certified DBE/WBE firm. 

PHILOSOPHY

Mahan Rykiel Associates’ philosophy centers on the core pursuit of design – to construct meaning and build relationships in the world. The firm seeks to realize this in every project as it articulates ideas in matter through design. This act is born and reborn at every site, with every client and every collaborator. Research, dialogue, and discovery enable the real to be shaped by imagination – giving form to the invisible and substance to the intangible.

APPROACH

Our approach starts with you, understanding your motivations, vision and desired outcomes for your project. 35 years designing highly successful places has taught us that good design stems from an acute ability to listen to our clients. Every project, regardless of size or complexity, begins with communication, so that we understand your needs, exploration, so that we can fill out your vision, and confirmation, to assure that our solutions align with your goals. Deep, informed thinking and a method that creates lasting partnerships with our clients are not additional services.

Our process is structured by Mahan Rykiel Associates’ Collaborative Design Research (CDR) method. This provides a structured framework for design and planning that is efficient, pragmatic, and purposeful. Throughout the CDR process, MRA works with its clients and stakeholders to align values, program requirements, performance metrics (ecological, economic, and cultural), and budgets to create inspired plans and landscape strategies that celebrate each project’s unique identity. The flexibility of the CDR method makes it an essential tool for the firm; providing clients a vehicle to establish a basis for mutual expectations and project evaluation, regardless of scale or complexity.

AWARDS

2018


Design with Dredge
National American Society of Landscape Architects Award for Research

Birdland
Traveler’s Award for Innovation, MD ASLA

The Dredge
Merit Award, MD ASLA

Mosaic
Excellence in Mixed Use, D.C. Urban Land Institute

Eager Park
Wavemaker Award, Urban Land Institute, Baltimore
Merit Award, MD ASLA

 

SEE FULL AWARDS LIST

FIRM

Founded in 1983, Mahan Rykiel Associates is a 35 person landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm with an office in Baltimore Maryland. The firm works across scales to imagine and realize projects that enrich the human condition and support vibrant natural systems. Research and discovery guide project development that range from public parks, civic plazas, state infrastructure, downtown and neighborhood plans, academic institutions, corporate campuses, mixeduse housing, private residences, healthcare facilities, hotels, and commercial centers. The firm cultivates this diversity to deepen and broaden its creative capacity to shape the built environment. Active collaboration across disciplines and sectors ensures that technical knowledge and resources are leveraged in support of each project.

MRA is a certified DBE/WBE firm. 

PHILOSOPHY

Mahan Rykiel Associates’ philosophy centers on the core pursuit of design – to construct meaning and build relationships in the world. The firm seeks to realize this in every project as it articulates ideas in matter through design. This act is born and reborn at every site, with every client and every collaborator. Research, dialogue, and discovery enable the real to be shaped by imagination – giving form to the invisible and substance to the intangible.

APPROACH

Our approach starts with you, understanding your motivations, vision and desired outcomes for your project. 35 years designing highly successful places has taught us that good design stems from an acute ability to listen to our clients. Every project, regardless of size or complexity, begins with communication, so that we understand your needs, exploration, so that we can fill out your vision, and confirmation, to assure that our solutions align with your goals. Deep, informed thinking and a method that creates lasting partnerships with our clients are not additional services.

Our process is structured by Mahan Rykiel Associates’ Collaborative Design Research (CDR) method. This provides a structured framework for design and planning that is efficient, pragmatic, and purposeful. Throughout the CDR process, MRA works with its clients and stakeholders to align values, program requirements, performance metrics (ecological, economic, and cultural), and budgets to create inspired plans and landscape strategies that celebrate each project’s unique identity. The flexibility of the CDR method makes it an essential tool for the firm; providing clients a vehicle to establish a basis for mutual expectations and project evaluation, regardless of scale or complexity.

AWARDS

2017


Eager Park
Wavemaker Award, Urban Land Institute, Baltimore

Anthem House
Grand Prize, Great American Living Award D.C, Wavemaker Award from Baltimore Chapter of Urban Land Institute

Green Tracks for Redline
Traveler’s Award for Innovation Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects

Pentagon Row
Honor Award, Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects

Exelon
USGBC MD Chapter, Wintergreen Award

2016


Anthem Arboretum at Francis Scott Key School
Traveler’s Award for Innovation Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects

Upper Chesapeake Medical Center
Kaufman Cancer Center Healing Gardens
Honor Award, Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects

Lancaster Economic Development Strategic Plan
Honor Award, Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and award from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Patterson Park Master Plan
Merit Award, Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects

 

SEE FULL AWARDS LIST