About Us

Mac Carbonell

Founder/Creative Director

Describe the landscape around your first home: Several of the oldest trees on record grow on the grounds of my childhood home, a historic farm and farmhouse on the bend of Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania. I remember being constantly aware, constantly observational of what the trees and the fields were doing around me. I would wander through tall grasses, legs scratched, with the weight of humidity and the scent of overgrown fields clinging to me. My relationship to nature has only continued to evolve since.

Mac is VERDANT’s creative leader. Fueled by the transportative qualities of plants, he drives the team outside the bounds of expectation, creating landscapes whose effects are long-lasting and exponential. Movement, texture, and living elements redefine the built environment through his visionary lens, where elegance balances with impact, absence with lushness, restraint with a tinge of excess.

His expertise guides the team’s solutions for efficient infrastructures to support each moment, with a dexterous ability to reconsider uses of industrial and natural materials in the process. Finding artful, graceful ways to expose the nuances of materials’ interrelationships, VERDANT brings to life landscape designs whose utility is outshined only by their emotion.

Raised by a family of architects and horticulturalists, his appreciation for art, design, landscape and plants started young. A life-long professional artist, Mac received a BA in Photography at Yale University and an MFA at the School of Visual Arts. He translates his trained creativity into not only the evolution of thoughtful designs, but also into his client collaborations, and business and team leadership: each plants the seeds for productive flourish to occur.

Alexis Henry

Office Manager & Field Coordinator

Describe an early memory of fascination with plants: When I was younger, I would follow my mother around the garden, and ask her what each plant was. I have always been curious about plants and how to care for them.

Alexis plays an integral role in keeping the wheels greased and the projects on track. From tedium to pie-in-the-sky, she approaches her work with a creative outlook, a sunny disposition, and a deeply genuine love for horticulture.

From desk to field, Alexis guides inter-office productivity and ensures the seamless execution of projects, liaising with clients and overseeing schedules and services – from installation to the maintenance required for VERDANT gardens’ poetic transitions between seasons.

Alexis recently received her Certificate in Horticulture from Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a testament to her firm belief in the power of landscape design to create living, breathing art.

Danielle Wolleman

Designer & Project Manager

Describe an experience that has impacted your work today: I grew up with a peach tree in my backyard. My sister and I would shake the tree and collect the dropped peaches, and the juice would drip down our faces as we ate them. Eventually, the trees stopped producing, and this experience faded into a memory. I still garden to chase this moment of joy, not just for myself, but for those who will enjoy the fruits of my labor in the future.

Danielle’s work at VERDANT lovingly honors the entire ecosystem of constituents, prioritizing not only clients but also the bees who will visit the sites, the birds who will rely on its branches or berries, and the existing physical and organic spaces each project engages.

Her approach to landscape design seeks harmony and cohesion, from building a strong team to creating thriving plant palettes with site-sensitive attributes – aesthetic, therapeutic, functional, and beyond. She is guided by a philosophy that landscape design can and should exist in symbiosis with its spaces, that it should be built to last, and that these characteristics create manifold opportunities for connection, inspiration, and peace. She lives out her design role as an opportunity to instill an appreciation for living things in all those who encounter them.

Gabriel R.S. Gourd

Artisan Builder & Installer

Describe a moment of pride in a building project: The design mock-up for Crye Precision felt like an accomplishment, being involved from start to finish through the installation process at such an ambitious scale within an interior.

With over 10 years of construction experience, Gabriel contributes to the crafting and building of sublime spaces. His operational philosophy centers around making creative use of raw materials, nimbly applicable to a wide range of project typologies.

Having spent most of his childhood outside in a rural, wooded area, he was introduced very early on to the power of landscape to inform one’s relationship and interaction with space. Inspired by ancient concepts and looking to the past to find at-times unorthodox solutions to current design challenges, his artisan approach to building is informed by keen observations of the elements around him.

He also maintains a personal practice as co-founder of Solace Natural Design, a permaculture studio, where he expresses his artistry and craftsmanship through the mediums of landscape, raw materials, paint and audio.

Inga Nielsen

Senior Project Manager & Design Director

Describe an early adventure experienced in nature: I grew up in the countryside of Northern Germany, where I spent my summers on my grandparent's homestead. It had extensive gardens, orchards, and strawberry fields, and I would spend the days in the meadows, trying to ride the horses and watching my grandmother cook, can, or churn butter. Every day was an adventure. 

Inga supercharges each project with systems-thinking genius, tackling both strategy and horticultural creativity with the vigor of a seasoned team leader. 

With prior experience overseeing a range of high-end residential and commercial architecture projects, she now boasts a decade on the VERDANT team. Merging an aptitude for technical solutions with affection for the natural world, Inga is responsible for the many systems and design frameworks that underlie each landscape, helping grow the team’s capacity for new typologies of projects, at larger scales and higher-level design complexities. 

Inga’s work speaks to her belief in the transformative nature of plants, and the aliveness of their ever-changing texture, color and shape across seasons to create something that, once planted, takes on a life of its own. Her leadership prioritizes opportunities for the skills and talents of all team members to shine wherever possible, and for laughter and joy to be a part of every day on the job. 

Inga holds Bachelors degrees in Graphic Design and Interior and Spatial Design from École supérieure des arts in Brussels, and London’s Chelsea College of Art and Design, respectively, and a Certificate in Horticulture from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Jaclyn Levy

Designer & Project Manager

Describe a feeling of nostalgia nature has offered you: Growing up in Long Island, I could walk to the beach from my parents' home. All along that walk, the road was lined with Bayberry and Juniper. I remember always enjoying the fragrant air as I passed by. I still enjoy that walk when I visit, and it brings me back to my childhood.

A practicing artist, Jaclyn’s background in art informs her visual approach to landscape design. Her plant selections and layouts consider form, color and texture in a way that mimics the practice of sculpture, which she was trained in: the volume, movement, and size of planting takes on new meaning through the prism of her guidance.

Jacyln’s commitment to invoking elements of the natural world in urban environments is rooted in a belief that green spaces are restorative, and that experiences of nature – especially when native plants are included – brighten life.

Joshua Gerber

Senior Project Manager & Designer

Describe an emotional reaction to nature: It was the sensation of seeing the desert for the first time. An uninterrupted view, more vast than I’d ever seen in my life, on a Southwest road trip, visiting a Pueblo called Acoma. The appreciation of nature on a sublime level has never really left me.

Joshua leads the VERDANT team with a sense of pragmatism and creative rigor, sensibilities that stem from his experience as a licensed, commercial architect.

Drawing from past projects that were as public as universities, and as intimate as private estates, he focuses on both the design and technical aspects of each project to build spaces that are meant to be experienced, engaged, and enjoyed. His work expresses a vested interest in spotlighting the bespoke handiwork of VERDANT’S gardeners and its team of designers, embracing the firm’s uniquely close relationship between concept and built project.

His leadership carries each project from the minutiae of design ingenuity, to the wonder of the team’s multidisciplinary skills brought to life through horticulture. With degrees in French and Art History from Colby College, Joshua also holds a Master’s in Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Marissa Ringel

Gardener & Field Lead

Describe a formative experience of nature: I grew up next to a large park, and spent all my free time in it running around and exploring. I have always been drawn to nature, and seen the power of landscape design to transform the experience of space.

Living between Nova Scotia and New York City has honed Marissa’s awareness of how ecology and the built environment engage. She is fluent in their entwined organic behaviors, as well as the balances they strike when placed into constructed relationships.

Marissa leads projects in the field with a tactical attention to site-specific detail. She grants priority to both plant health and aesthetic considerations, a dual sensitivity that makes it all the more rewarding to see how VERDANT gardens healthily, beautifully transform and evolve throughout the seasons and years.

She holds a BA in Anthropology and a BA in History of Art and Visual Culture, both from the University of California Santa Cruz. A certified permaculturist, Marissa also maintains a personal practice as co-founder of Solace Natural Design, a permaculture studio.

Meila Vazquez-Miller

Horticulturist

Describe a botanical achievement: I am a pest eliminator. Pests are often inevitable for most indoor spaces, but I have many approaches that target each different type of pest. Certain plants may be more difficult to manage, but anything is doable with a bushel of patience.

Meila is VERDANT’s indisputable and unrivaled plant expert. Highly attuned to the needs and proclivities of a wide range of species, she harnesses their natural behaviors to support on landscape interventions across a range of scenarios. 

Meila works in collaboration with the design team to create dynamic spaces where plants and their built surroundings work in cohesion. She is committed to creating art through both the hard- and softscapes of landscape design, from using design-forward containers to accentuate the extraordinary nature of a quotidian plant, to emphasizing unexpected color choices and grow patterns to evoke rarity. 

A Brooklyn native, she grew up surrounded by nature within the context of the built environment, to which she attributes her vast knowledge of both indoor and outdoor plants. Through an intimate understanding of their unique characteristics, she considers each horticultural choice to carry the potential for sanctuary.

Noah Nickerson

Installation Technician

Describe one of your proudest design moments: We completely transformed the Penny Hotel in Williamsburg. It was a thorough installation of irrigation lines, planters, and an eventual massive planting. An empty brick lot became a lush and comfortable courtyard, an inaccessible green roof became a thriving meadow, and a stretch of pavers became a restaurant terrace bordered with textured native plants, providing a foreground to a view of Manhattan.

A native New Yorker, Noah has long been privy to nature’s interplays with the built environment. Inspired by frequent trips to Prospect Park, he brings into his projects the nostalgic joys of his childhood: he would find edible chives, wood sorrel and clovers in the park, living proof that even the most metropolitan of spaces are meant to remain full of nourishing, green life.

Prioritizing consideration for all stakeholders, Noah helps steer Verdant projects toward their fullest impact as spaces that have the ability to hold, tell, and forecast stories. As a multifaceted contributor to the team, he fluently supports projects from landscaping and gardening, to technical installation, irrigation, and maintenance.

His strengths lie in an intrinsic understanding of negotiations between the built and unbuilt, and in deep empathy to how landscape design mediates our collective relationship to the environment at large.

Payton Van Gorp

Designer & Project Manager

Describe an early memory of the great outdoors: I grew up spending a lot of time in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I will always cherish exploring the endless fields of wildflowers in the Rockies during the summer.

Rooted in a vast horticultural knowledge, Payton’s approach to landscape design emphasizes the importance of biodiversity in urban spaces, to serve both people and the wildlife it engages. Her specialty is addressing the unique challenges of dynamic environments, from the public cityscape of NYC to the traffic and flow of residential installations.

Prone to the controlled beauty of an intentionally natural, wild aesthetic, her management and design styles both hinge on multi-elemental cohesion, the latter with a keen eye for visual appeal. Her work lends to both function and beauty, and to creating moments of reprieve within built spaces, through a partnership of design and botanical gestures.

Tyler Haskell

Senior Designer & Business Development

Describe a time when nature’s wonders surprised you: When I was young, my family would travel to a cabin in the woods together. There was a small pond nearby, and when I was around 6, my cousins dared me to walk to the pond alone in the middle of the night. Although thoughts of snakes, cougars, and bears began to fill my mind, I eventually experienced a sort of peace and appreciation of the magic this inky, dark unknown held. Fear and wonder carried me in equal ways through the dark.

Striking a sensitive balance of rigor and care, Tyler expertly manages design projects and studio growth, doing so with a steadfast commitment to environmental stewardship.

Drawing from an educational background in art and design, and nearly a decade of professional experience in luxury design, he works with clients and collaborators to bring projects of all scales to life. Tyler believes that landscape design has the potential to enrich humanity’s connection to nature, and he motivates each VERDANT project to foster that relationship.

A seasoned traveler educated in the disciplines of art and design, Tyler sources additional professional inspiration from his background as a World- and National Championship-winning Ultimate Frisbee player.

Will Santora

Garden Installer

Describe an early memory of “making”: When I was young, I would play in the small stream near the house I grew up in. It had a deep pool, and using stones and mud, I would create little dams, catching water bugs that swam by.

Through his work, Will unearths possibilities for landscape designs to become reality. With an astute ability to identify solutions around building, design implementation, and logistics, his work has led to the creation of landscapes within the most far-reaching of constraints: from navigating trees up three flights of stairs past high-value art collections, to installing a secret-garden forest on a Tribeca rooftop, to building irrigation systems in tough-to-access spots behind secret panel walls. 

His expert problem-solving abilities bring even the trickiest of designs and installations to life, manifesting his belief that landscape design bridges constructed and natural worlds for the betterment of the human experience.

Jeffrey Stevens

Designer

Describe experiences that have drawn you closer to nature: Experiencing the Pacific Ocean’s big surf, getting thrashed by powerful waves, brought me closer to nature’s untamed force. The Pacific Northwest, where life replaces life in rapid succession, made me appreciate nature's cycle of renewal.

Drawing from California's innovative landscapes, Jeffery Stevens brings a unique blend of storytelling and semiotics to his role at Verdant. With a background that includes creating and simulating diverse environments, Jeffery views gardening as a form of rewriting histories and engaging in political acts. His designs weave ecological and cultural narratives into the fabric of each project, creating a deeper connection between people and place.

Jeffery believes in the profound power of landscape design to naturalize values and narratives, presenting them as part of the environment’s inherent nature.

Jessica Villarreal

Lead Horticulturist

Describe where your passion and interest in nature and plants comes from: At the age of 13, I worked for my neighbor's native plant nursery, where I found my love for plants. On road trips, I collected seeds and cuttings from the wild and began learning propagation methods, among many other horticulture skills. Cultivating plants for commercial viability felt like sorcery to me. This early encounter with nature inspired my lifelong fascination with plants and continues to drive my work today.

Jessica Villarreal brings a wealth of botanical expertise to Verdant. Her career has spanned plant nurseries, research greenhouses, consulted on ranches and wildlife sanctuaries. Her journey through these diverse environments, coupled with an education in sustainable development, has endowed her with a profound understanding of ecological systems. This unique blend of experiences allows Jessica to create beautiful and functional gardens from the ground up, which is paired nicely with her eye for both aesthetic form and ecological function.

Jessica believes in the transformative power of landscape design. She sees it as a solution to complex environmental, social, and economic challenges, particularly in urban areas where green space is precious. Her work at Verdant reflects this belief, as she strives to create vibrant, sustainable spaces that improve quality of life, reduce pollution, and mitigate climate change.