JOANNA PERTZ, RLA – Founder + Principal
As Founder and Principal of JPLA, Joanna extends her unique design vision and commitment to sustainability to all aspects of the firm’s work. She is dedicated to cultivating a practice and creating landscapes that have a positive impact on communities and the built and natural environment. Joanna’s designs are born through a passion for drawing, movement, and space. Through the design of landscapes, she aims to bring the natural world into focus, and to create a sense of place for the people who inhabit them.
With a background in the arts and over 25 years of professional practice, Joanna has built a practice with a conceptual and technical rigor that delivers innovative and impactful designs. JPLA’s landscapes are economically valuable, ecologically sustainable and increase the quality of life and health in their communities. Joanna leads JPLA’s talented team of design professionals with an emphasis on collaboration to cultivate new ideas and mastery of the work. JPLA’s approach to each project involves advancing the clients’ vision, site-specific analysis, and conceptual exploration. Wherever possible, we aim to optimize sustainability credits and incorporate storm water management and green infrastructure Best Management Practices.
Joanna understands a successful landscape is one that thrives over time. JPLA provides clients with both high-level landscape architectural design services and long-term horticultural support. A consultative branch of JPLA toffers Maintenance Oversight Services and Ecological Stewardship which sustains relationships with clients and projects after construction. Joanna enjoys sourcing local ingredients and cooking up a storm for family and friends, dancing, creating beautiful things and exploring new places with her husband and three boys.
RACHEL WHITESIDE, RLA – Associate Principal
Rachel plays a critical role supporting the firm and Founder – collaborating on design, helping to shape strategy and business development, and managing projects in the office. Rachel leads JPLA’s design + production efforts to deliver clear, thorough design presentations and construction documents and interfaces with clients and consultants for streamlined, effective communication. Throughout the course of a project, Rachel takes pride to ensure that JPLA’s design vision is carried out from the inception of concept design through the execution of construction details. Through seventeen years in the field, Rachel brings to the team a diverse skill set that includes an advanced understanding of the materials and technologies of landscape and a penchant for plants and planting design.
With a background in Fine Arts, Rachel has an eye for design and a graphic sensibility that she brings to her work. Since receiving her MLA from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 2004, Rachel has worked in New York City building her experience on local and international projects, across a range of sectors and scales. Rachel enjoys exploring Brooklyn’s large parks with her family and dog, and takes refuge in the beaches and meadows of the North shore of Long Island where she grew up.
ANNIE SCOTT HALABURDA – Horticulture Oversight Manager and Landscape Designer
Annie Scott Halaburda manages JPLA’s Landscape Maintenance Oversight practice. In this role, she helps our clients identify the required services needed, assembles the allied professionals to perform the work, and oversees the project in-situ to provide the best systems and strategies for the health of their landscapes. Her work is guided by a hands-on approach with an emphasis on field observations and clear communication with clients and contractors.
Prior to joining JPLA, Annie earned both a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the City College of New York, and a Master’s degree in Landscape Design from The Conway School. With this extensive knowledge base, Annie founded an ecological design studio where she designed landscapes for residential clients, community projects, and nonprofits.
Annie believes in creating and sustaining landscapes that are resilient and emotionally resonant. Through her work, she aims to create opportunities for joy and engagement in the landscape to foster a shared sense of environmental stewardship. In her free time, Annie enjoys working in her vegetable garden, biking, hiking, and exploring natural and urban areas.
With a background in Fine Arts, Rachel has an eye for design and a graphic sensibility that she brings to her work. Since receiving her MLA from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 2004, Rachel has worked in New York City building her experience on local and international projects, across a range of sectors and scales. Rachel enjoys exploring Brooklyn’s large parks with her family and dog, and takes refuge in the beaches and meadows of the North shore of Long Island where she grew up.
MARIA ISABEL ARROYO – Landscape Designer
Maria has a facility with the digital tools of graphics and technical production, particularly with AutoCAD drafting, organization and drawing management. As a project designer, Maria supports the development and refinement of design concepts through clear and thorough graphic and technical documents, and also excels in developing organizational systems and product research. In her first year at JPLA, Maria led production on NYCHA PACT ABM, 3 public housing landscapes in Washington Hts Neighborhood, with the completion of construction documents in January 2022.
Prior to joining JPLA, Maria worked throughout the Mid-Atlantic on a diverse range of projects including small public spaces, highway greening, urban streetscapes, multi-family residential landscape and private residential gardens. Her Graduate education at the Harvard GSD’s MLA Program provided a framework of space-making and ecology and refined her undergraduate foundation in design and analysis. Maria is an avid reader and maker and enjoys learning about history, art, and sustainability while also dabbling in a number of creative projects including drawing, sewing, crochet, and photography.
AARON NELL – Landscape Designer
As a landscape designer at JPLA, Aaron contributes to all aspects of project work from design and planning to advancing material research to construction documents and construction administration. Aaron strives for clarity in graphic and verbal communication, coordinating with consultants and clients throughout the design process.
Prior to joining JPLA, Aaron worked in Southern California on landscape and planning projects in multifamily, estate residential, institutional, corporate, and public landscapes, focusing on sustainable design practices in a drought and fire sensitive region. Originally from rural Alabama, he graduated with an MLA from Auburn University in his home state and worked as a graduate teaching assistant in design introduction classes. Aaron is passionate about landscape as the intersection of human and non-human expression in the city. He enjoys exploring, sketching, and investigating ecologies both native and novel.
ALEX HADLEY – Landscape Designer
Alex Hadley assists at all stages of design at JPLA, with a particular focus on production of technical design documents, modeling in 3D and writing about the work of the firm for proposals, awards and marketing purposes. With his experience practicing digital design and teaching ecological theory, he helps projects achieve a high level of refinement. Having worked for several years in professional landscape offices, Alex is able to lead clients to elegant solutions rooted in real world experience.
Prior to joining JPLA, Alex completed his undergrad in Architecture at Temple University, as well as a master’s degree in ecological design at IAAC in Barcelona. After finishing his masters, Alex continued to work in Spain at the Valldaura Labs research center, teaching small scale intensive agriculture and ecological theory. While acting as Technical Director, he participated on two full scale building prototypes (The Voxel, 2020 and F.L.O.R.A, 2022) which were featured in The New York Times, ArchDaily and Dezeen. Alex has also published writing on the politics of sustainability and ecological design, and the intersection of design and economic production.
