Ryan Castro

Senior Associate

Senior Associate Ryan Castro brings over a decade of experience shaping immersive landscapes across a broad range of project types—from urban playgrounds to state parks, greenways, and green roofs. At Starr Whitehouse, Ryan serves as the lead landscape architect for the Brooklyn Greenway, a waterfront project focused on enhancing accessibility, promoting health, and connecting communities with scenic views and recreational spaces along the waterfront. In addition, he played a key role in the design of the ambitious Lakeshore improvements at Bear Mountain State Park, working closely with the team to enhance the visitor experience while preserving the site’s historic and ecological character. Ryan approaches every project with a balance of creativity and technical rigor, crafting spaces that offer moments of calm, connection, and clarity within the urban fabric. His work is grounded in place making—weaving together narrative, site, and user experience to create landscapes that resonate deeply while meeting future needs and the challenges of diverse communities. He earned his Master of Landscape Architecture as a Presidential Scholar at the Rhode Island School of Design and holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the New York Institute of Technology.

Representative Projects:

Parks and Playground Design

Dinosaur Playground Restoration, Riverside Park, New York, NY
Bear Mountain State Park Restoration, Bear Mountain, NY
Clove Lakes Park Ballfield Reconstruction, Staten Island, NY
Bartlett Playground, Brooklyn, NY*
Maple Playground, Queens, NY*
Lower Highland East Playground and Comfort Station, Queens, NY*
FDNY-EMT Yadira Arroyo Playground, Bronx, NY*
Playground 134, Bronx, NY*
Longfellow Playground, Bronx, NY*
Lyon Square Playground, Bronx, NY*
Little Claremont Playground, Bronx, NY*
South Rochdale Playground, Queens, NY*

Streets, Public Realm, and Infrastructure

Destination Greenways! Leif Ericson Park to Verrazzano Bridge, Brooklyn, NY
Destination Greenways! Plan, Queens/Brooklyn, NY*

Site Plans + Housing

116th Police Precinct Station House Landscape, Queens, NY
Barnard College, Manhattan, NY*
NYU Langone Tisch Courtyard, Manhattan, NY*

*Work completed prior to joining Starr Whitehouse