MNLA

In an era of increasing climate volatility, protecting our urban fabric is paramount. MNLA's urban climate adaptation and resilient design service is crafted for city agencies, developers, and institutions in New York who need to safeguard communities and infrastructure against flooding, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events.This service is for you if you are managing waterfront properties, planning new public infrastructure, or retrofitting existing spaces to meet future climate challenges...

Great cities are defined by their great public spaces. MNLA's public park and plaza design service is dedicated to municipalities, business improvement districts, and private developers in New York who aim to create inviting, equitable, and ecologically rich gathering places for all.This service is ideal if you are revitalizing a neighborhood square, programming a new downtown plaza, or transforming an underutilized parcel into a community heart. We guide you from initial concept through communi...

The landscape of a campus or institution tells a story about its values and vision. MNLA's campus landscape architecture service partners with universities, hospitals, research centers, and cultural institutions in New York to create outdoor environments that inspire learning, wellness, and innovation.This service is designed for facility directors, capital project planners, and institutional leaders undertaking new construction, renovations, or long-term campus master planning. We work collabor...

We are a landscape architecture practice with more than twenty years of work shaping public and private outdoor space. Our principals and designers take each project from early research through construction, combining ecological thinking, community input and careful attention to materials. Whether the site is a waterfront edge, a neighborhood square or a campus courtyard, we start by understanding how people will use it and how the land behaves. If you are planning an outdoor space and want a te...

As a firm, we bring together principals, designers and specialists who work across parks, institutions and resilient infrastructure. Our practice is built on collaboration: we work alongside architects, engineers, agencies and community groups so that each project fits its context. Our approach favors rigorous site research, ethically sourced materials and layered designs that serve ecological as well as social goals. Clients come to us when they need a landscape that is durable, well-considered...

Urban climate adaptation design is for property owners, agencies and institutions that need outdoor space to handle flooding, rising seas and extreme weather. Our work starts with a site and climate vulnerability analysis, often carried out with hydrologists and engineers who model future conditions. From there we develop strategies such as floodable parks and green infrastructure that protect nearby buildings while remaining useful to the public day to day. We also help clients navigate permitt...

We design public parks and plazas for municipalities, business districts and private developers who want gathering places that welcome everyone. Projects typically move from early concept and community engagement through schematic design and construction oversight. We balance hard and soft surfaces, active and quiet areas, and durable materials that hold up under heavy use. Our work includes projects such as Little Island Plaza and Stuyvesant Cove Park, where the aim was a space people return to...

Resilient landscape design focuses on outdoor space that can absorb shocks and recover quickly, whether from storm surge, heavy rain or heat. We approach each site with layered strategies that manage water, stabilize edges and choose plantings suited to changing conditions. The result is landscape that protects the surrounding area while still serving daily uses like walking, sitting and play. Our team works through the technical, regulatory and funding questions that come with resilience projec...

Campus landscape design shapes the outdoor spaces of universities, hospitals, research centers and cultural institutions. We design environments for gathering, study, quiet reflection and daily circulation, while handling stormwater and selecting plants that need less upkeep. Our work with Yale University's Upper Science Hill Development shows how we can create a distinct outdoor character within a larger campus. We collaborate closely with architects and planners from early master planning thro...

Floodable parks are designed to accept water during storms and return to normal use afterward. We plan these spaces with grading, materials and planting that tolerate periodic inundation, so the park functions as ordinary public space most of the time and as flood protection when needed. Our work on East River Park Phase 1 is part of one of the largest projects of its kind in the country. Clients include city agencies and developers who need a park that is both safe and welcoming. We would be gl...

Sustainable landscape architecture is central to how we work. We select materials with attention to their origin, plan for stormwater on site, and choose plant palettes that support local ecology while keeping maintenance reasonable. Our projects range from urban parks to campus courtyards, and we adapt these practices to each client's budget and program. Sustainability for us is not an add-on but part of the design from the first sketch. If you are looking for a landscape team that takes enviro...