An architect by training and an explorer by nature, Melissa brings perpetual curiosity and passion for placemaking to her role as a LIMN Advisor.

Spending her early years on a sailboat in the Eastern Caribbean before heading up the eastern US seaboard to study architecture at Barnard College, Columbia University, and then MIT, Melissa now considers herself an adopted New Yorker. After holding leadership and advisory roles in design and real estate on three continents, she founded PLASTARC in 2012.

Describing PLASTARC as ‘social research and people analytics for the built environment,’ Melissa and her team combine organizational design and architecture to enhance organizational culture and employee experience.  Melissa’s multisensory solution-seeking sits at the intersection of qualitative and quantitative research, as well as an appreciation for the beauty of neurodiversity.

In addition to her work with PLASTARC, Melissa teaches at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design, coaches at MIT DesignX, and speaks frequently about the benefits of buildings and people getting along better together. She coaches a teen mountain-bike team and founded the booster club for a competitive swimming team in New York’s Hudson Valley.