Mahan Rykiel Associates is excited to welcome Yuming Hsu, Tess Larichuita, John Merritt, Jaime Schmotzer, and Geruihan Xu to our team. These talented new staff members bring an array of skills from a diversity of backgrounds that will be invaluable in our continued effort to produce excellent design solutions.
Yuming holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from National Chiayi University, and has also studied Urban Planning at National Cheng Kung University. After gaining several years of experience in design and construction in Taiwan as a landscape designer and construction management associate, Yuming pursued further studies abroad and obtained a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from The Ohio State University. While at OSU, he was awarded the 2022 Ohio Chapter ASLA Student Honor Award.
John Merritt began and spent most of his career in New York City working with a mix of three-person mom ‘n’ pop offices to multi-national firms. During his 20 years in landscape architecture, John has developed a specialty in rooftop applications. He is interested in bio-engineering methods proven to solve landscape problems in both urban and rural environments as well as shared streets principles that return our communities to pedestrians. During a two-year stint in the United Kingdom, he was fascinated by the varying attitudes designers and engineers have about their home landscape and the different technical approaches they use to address similar challenges we experience in the States.
Jaime will be joining us later this summer after graduating in May with a Master in Landscape Architecture degree from The Ohio State University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in City and Regional Planning and a Minor in Architectural Studies. She has been working as Research Assistant collaborating with Associate Professor Jake Boswell on his Performance Adaptive Regimes for Campus Landscapes (PARCL) project assisting with physical site work, such as planting, site maintenance, researching plant species and ecological functions. Her studio project, Water Garden, takes place within a neighborhood park and focuses on daylighting a stream that is currently buried beneath the site.
Geruihan holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Rhode Island School of Design and a Bachelor of Economics from East China University of Science and Technology. In her design process, she explores multi-sensory experiences and how they translate into a design language to inspire people. With her multidisciplinary background, she finds expression through various artforms.
Tess Larichiuta joined the Mahan Rykiel team as our Controller in February 2023. She is responsible for all aspects of the firm’s financial operations and manages the company’s human resources. Tess brings years of leadership and project financial management experience. She is a Baltimore native and is a graduate of the Institute of Notre Dame and The University of Baltimore. Her hobbies include trying new recipes, reading, hiking and skiing.
