Hazel Magoon

Urban Planner Hazel Magoon manages a broad range of urban planning and design projects — with a particular focus on making urban parks and other large, complex open spaces more socially and physically resilient. A gifted communicator and consensus-builder, she acts as a linch pin between city agencies, stewardship organizations, multidisciplinary design teams, and environmental stakeholders. Hazel is currently the project manager on the Waterfront Alliance’s resilience study for Coney Island Creek and NYC Parks’ Pelham Bay Park Resilience and Access Study — working with complex agency and non-profit constituencies to protect beloved open spaces from sea level rise. Previously, Hazel was the project manager for NYC Parks’ Hart Island Concept Plan, supported community engagement for the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice’s Climate Strong Communities program, and supported workflows on a broad range of projects for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. Hazel discovered her passions for sustainability, urbanism, and building equitable green spaces in undergraduate classes at the University of Michigan where she majored in urban studies and political science. She has previous experience working in urban planning and small-scale real estate development.

With cross-disciplinary expertise in architecture and landscape design honed on complex urban sites in Germany, Ukraine, and New York City, Kateryna Maksimentseva brings international experience and innovative design thinking to Starr Whitehouse. Her work spans high-end residences, affordable housing, civic spaces, winning competition entries, and ambitious public realm improvements, including culturally significant areas and new urban developments. At Starr Whitehouse, she leads ideation and production on major housing and public space projects, integrating mobility, infrastructure, ecology, structural requirements, and economic imperatives into immersive open space design. She currently leads design visioning for NYC DOT’s Park Avenue Vision Plan, a project to transform New York’s premier financial corridor into a promenade of ecology, art, and social space atop a reconstructed MTA train shed. Passionate about dissolving the boundaries between architecture and landscape, Kateryna’s work creates high-performing environments that function as one harmonious, living system. Beyond her studio work, Kateryna is also a Forefront Fellow in Living Routes, an Urban Design Forum program focused on reimagining public spaces as living, adaptive, and sustaining landscapes of care.

With a dual background in architecture and urban design, Dhwani Mehta brings a multidisciplinary approach to large-scale site design, infrastructure, and resilience planning. Bridging high-level strategy with construction documentation and site supervision, she is a valuable team member on any challenging urban site where big picture thinking must be keyed to the realities of implementation. Dhwani currently leads Starr Whitehouse’s urban design effort on a FEMA-funded resilience study for the Esplanade Gardens housing development, integrating amenity and community needs into a new surge-resilient shoreline. She leads multiple projects for the NYC DEP Bureau of Environmental Planning and Analysis (BEPA)’s Water & Stormwater Resiliency Programs, coordinating with city agencies and civil engineers to integrate stormwater management into capital projects across the city. Before joining Starr Whitehouse, she contributed design and construction documentation on NYC DEP’s Kissena Cloudburst Hub and other resilience efforts. Dhwani holds a Master’s in Architecture Studies and Urbanism from MIT, and worked as a licensed architect in India on institutional projects, including schools, hospitals, and university campuses.

Aaron is a versatile designer with experience in all phases of design and construction and an interest in the long-term health of landscapes. He is currently supporting the FEMA-funded reconstruction of historic Dinosaur Playground in Manhattan’s Riverside Park — retrofitting a landmarked park with new play features and high-performing stormwater infrastructure. He leads drawing production on three miles of NYC Parks’ Destination: Greenways! initiative and the creation of neurodivergence-oriented play experience at NYC Parks’ Wolfe’s Pond Park Playground. With Laura Starr, Aaron’s concept design for the Stemma helped the developer team win the contract to implement this new sustainable housing project in the Bronx. He is currently providing construction administration for NYC Parks’ Clove Lakes Park Baseball Field in Staten Island. Before joining Starr Whitehouse, Aaron performed construction documentation and administration on Hudson River Park Piers 25 and 84 and learned sustainable design practices through work in drought and fire sensitive regions of Sourthern California. Originally from rural Alabama, Aaron graduated with an MLA from Auburn University where he worked as a teaching assistant.

Keiko Yabe is a Senior Landscape and Urban Designer specializing in resilience planning, GIS analysis, mapping, and human-centric public space design. With a background in engineering, she combines rigorous technical analysis with intuitive graphics and experiential streetscape design. Keiko currently manages Starr Whitehouse’s urban design efforts for NYC DOT’s North Brooklyn Pedestrian Safety and Public Space Improvement Project, coordinating with the City’s engineering team and developing plaza design documentation. For NYC EDC’s Citywide Greenways Expansion Plan, she is contributing urban design analysis and creating systemwide design standards. On Coney Island, she is developing mapping, risk analysis, and urban design studies for the Waterfront Alliance’s Coney Island Creek Resilience Project. Past projects include a wayfinding and signage plan for Niagara Falls State Park and bid set management on the City of Hudson’s Public Square Park renovation. Keiko holds a Master’s in City Planning and an Urban Design Certificate from MIT and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, where she developed a strong interest in equity, resiliency, and community-focused design.

Landscape and urban designer Ana Piacentini brings seven years of mapping, design, and construction administration experience with a particular emphasis on ecology and water management. A leader in GIS, she contributed landscape design and drainage analysis on NYC Park’s Hart Island Island Concept Plan and NYC DEP’s Prospect Park BlueBelt Study. She developed construction documentation on an ambitious new adventure playground at Bear Mountain State Park and currently oversees construction. In East Harlem, Ana is supporting concept alternatives on a resilience study for the Esplanade Gardens housing development. Prior to Starr Whitehouse, Ana spent four years designing and detailing housing projects throughout New York City, Miami and the Bahamas. In her free time, she loves to rock climb, play tennis, read, and experiment with different artistic mediums such as block printing.

With a background in fine art and philosophy, Phil crafts the narratives and graphic materials that communicate Starr Whitehouse’s vision.

Associate Brady Richards is a versatile landscape architect and writer who contributes design leadership and project management across all phases of production. As lead designer, he specializes in high-performing landscapes that integrate community programming with ecology and climate resilience. With technical acumen and a creative problem-solving approach, Brady has advanced challenging site designs for a new riverfront parks system in Roswell, GA, integrated an adventure playground into the rocky hillside of Bear Mountain State Park in Upstate New York, and developed two winning designs for the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management’s Green Infrastructure Design Challenge. As Project Manager, Brady is trusted by public and institutional clients to lead agency coordination and public processes on culturally significant sites. He manages the Starr Whitehouse consultant team on the design of Emory University’s new Oxford Memorial Park — honoring the enslaved persons who helped build and sustain Emory’s original campus in Oxford, GA. Prior to Starr Whitehouse, Brady worked on public and private sector projects in Colorado, Oregon, and Arizona. All that time out West sharpened his appreciation for the complexity of ecologies, both pristine and disturbed, and the resiliency of the individuals and communities that inhabit them. Outside the office, you’ll find Brady writing, reading, or hiking in the mountains.

A Senior Associate in Starr Whitehouse’s Atlanta Studio, Aubrey Sabba has two decades of experience designing natural resource-based and cultural landscapes for the National Parks Service, urban parks and trails for municipalities across the Atlanta region, and community master plans for public and institutional clients across the eastern United States. With a background in horticulture, Aubrey is adept at integrating native plantings and green infrastructure into constrained urban sites. Her work emphasizes protecting the urban tree canopy, developing creative solutions for threading proposed designs through sensitive ecologies. A project manager with deep technical rigor and years of permitting experience, she has helped shape many of Atlanta’s most significant open spaces, including the renovation of Centennial Olympic Park, the Woodruff Park Strategic Plan, and Atlanta BeltLine’s Enota Park. Aubrey is a Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) and has volunteered for Park Pride’s Park Visioning Workshop, leading Starr Whitehouse’s team for Ardmore Park and NH Scott Park. Across all her projects, she takes inspiration from the local ecosystem to create community spaces infused with a sense of place in both the natural and human worlds.