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Design Showcase, 2026 Edition

Panel discussion

Join us as three members of our community present and share their design projects.

 

A Resilient Coastal Garden in Provincetown
Marissa Angell will present a renovation of a small garden at a historic Provincetown cottage, reimagined as a drought-tolerant landscape inspired by the Cape Cod seashore. She’ll share how thoughtful plant choices and regional materials create a cohesive outdoor space that feels welcoming and distinctly “of place.” This is a great case study in designing for resilience without sacrificing beauty or personality.
McGolrick Park Native Garden Revival
Lauren Clark will share the dramatic transformation of a once-overgrown garden at a main entrance to McGolrick Park in Greenpoint into a vibrant, welcoming native planting display. The garden is designed for successional blooms and year-round interest. It offers ecological value while giving park-goers something new to notice each season. Expect a look at how sun and shade areas were shaped into distinct “rooms” that create beautiful views from both the sidewalk and inside the park.
The Labyrinth Garden at Yale Divinity School
Chris Freimuth will present the Labyrinth Garden at Yale Divinity School, a courtyard landscape centered on a labyrinth and planted mainly with native species. The project blends ecological design with spiritual storytelling and research into the site’s deeper human history, including its connection to the Quinnipiac peoples. Part serene refuge and part restored habitat for birds and pollinators, it offers a compelling model for designing gardens with meaning, memory, and biodiversity.

Moderator

Shanti Nagel, Principal/Founding Partner of Design Wild

Panelists

Marissa Angell, Lauren Clark, and Christopher Freimuth

Marissa Angell, PLA, ASLA

Founder and CEO, Angell Landscape Architecture

Marissa is an award-winning licensed landscape architect with over a decade of experience in the field. Working across a range of geographic contexts and site conditions, Marissa’s approach to design prioritizes lush, thoughtful, and energetic landscapes that are context-specific and environmentally responsible. With a passion for education, each project she embarks on acts as an opportunity to demonstrate the positive impact of considered built environments. Based between New York City and Albany, Marissa has worked at a range of scales, from upstate properties larger than 40 acres to Brooklyn backyards smaller than 1,000 square feet.

She holds a masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Sciences from Cornell University. Her work and writing has been featured in a range of international publications, including Architectural Digest, Vogue, Fine Gardening, Gardenista, and Gardens Illustrated, and her work has received numerous accolades from professional organizations, including ASLA, the Perennial Plant Association, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

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Lauren Clark

Manager of Horticulture and Stewardship, McGolrick Park

Lauren Clark is a New Orleans transplant who has called Brooklyn home for twenty years. After completing a Masters at Sarah Lawrence College in American History, she spent her early career in academia. Like many people, the pandemic inspired Lauren to reflect and change course. She began to pursue a passion for horticulture and community engagement.

Lauren started this transition as part of a volunteer group at McGolrick Park, established to advocate for additional park resources. This volunteer work led her to a part-time gardener position with the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, which grew into her current role as the Manager of Horticulture and Stewardship for McGolrick Park.

Since 2023, Lauren has worked with hundreds of volunteers on horticultural and educational projects and continues to expand horticulture investments across Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Through ecological gardening practices, and a deep love of city parks, she hopes to inspire others to engage with plants and appreciate their role in making cities livable, resilient and beautiful.
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Christopher Freimuth

Founder, CF Gardens

Christopher Freimuth is a designer, horticulturist, and founder of CF GARDENS. He cut his horticultural teeth at the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture (Class of ’17), where he interned at Chanticleer Garden. After six years of running a garden design, installation, and maintenance firm in New York City, Chris sold his client list in 2022 and moved to New Haven, CT. While pursuing a degree at Yale Divinity School (Class of ’25), he integrated his life passions by exploring gardening and design as spiritual practice. For his final project at Yale, in 2024 he designed and installed a 7,000 sq. ft. Labyrinth Garden in one of the school’s public courtyards. Chris is now working on various ecological design projects in Connecticut while also serving as Acting Director of the New Haven Pride Center.

 

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Event Info
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Design Showcase, 2026 Edition

A close-up of a black and white drawing that depicts intricate and delicate leaf and vine patterns on a textured surface. The design is detailed and emphasizes natural forms in an artistic style.