Maryland Center for Construction Education & Innovation

As a landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm, having a diversity of people, backgrounds and ideas has been key to Mahan Rykiel Associate’s (MRA) success. A diverse perspective provides an edge when tackling issues of community identity, economic development, and ecological stewardship.

Of MRA’s staff of 33 employees, 47% are minority. Over the past 36 years, Mahan Rykiel has had the opportunity to work on high profile, projects such as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge – Rosalie Island Park, the Purple Line, environmental mitigation on the Inter County Connector, MGM at National Harbor, Delaware Scenic Byways, and numerous campus/academic projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Research and discovery guide the design of our myriad projects from public parks, civic plazas, state infrastructure, downtown and neighborhood plans, academic institutions, corporate campuses, mixed-use housing, private residences, healthcare facilities, hotels, to commercial centers.

To bolster diversity in the industry, MRA participates in career fairs and programs geared toward exposing minority students to career pathways in design and landscape architecture from grade school to graduate courses.  Some recent programs include: a course taught at Morgan State University, a historically black public university in Baltimore, Maryland; Project Birdland, a stem education curriculum written and developed by Mahan Rykiel for children in Baltimore City Schools; the Baltimore YouthWorks program; Future City Career Fairs, a project-based learning program where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future.