Date Posted: 06.23.2025
Exceptional design by exceptional people. We are pleased to announce the promotion of team members within our Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Please join us in congratulating these outstanding individuals.
PRINCIPALS
Mithun has promoted Christian Runge, Dustann Jones, Séamus Kelly and Tonyel Stewart to Principal.
Christian Runge is a landscape architect passionate about designing at the intersection of nature, culture and human health in the public realm. He has contributed to parks, education and ecological design projects across the country, from the national ASLA and AIA award-winning Louisiana Children’s Museum, to the University of Washington Haring Center for Inclusive Education and the first universal design playground and sensory garden for Shoreline, WA.
Dustann Jones is an architect and designer with extensive experience creating cultural, civic and educational facilities that facilitate new ways of seeing and experiencing the world. Projects like Wanapum Heritage Center, National Nordic Museum and Sustainability Treehouse demonstrate his commitment to craft and interdisciplinary collaboration — weaving natural and built environments with interpretive elements to reveal vivid stories of culture and ecology, connected intimately to place.
Séamus Kelly is an architect with a passion for crafting inclusive and high-performing educational environments from early childhood learning through higher education. He specializes in integrated project delivery, including progressive design-build and GC/CM models. Projects like Washington School for the Deaf and UW Bothell / Cascadia College Innovation Hall demonstrate the exemplary results achieved through deep collaboration uniting design, construction and owner teams.
Tonyel Stewart is an architect and leader within Mithun’s growing Los Angeles studio. Passionate about land use, social justice issues and their intersection within the built environment, he brings valuable technical and urban design expertise to the challenges of complex urban projects. Notable projects include Bentonville City Hall in Arkansas, our new Mithun Los Angeles workplace, and VTA Capitol Station transit-adjacent affordable housing in San Jose.
ASSOCIATE PRINCIPALS
New Associate Principals are Charlie Able, Joe Swain, Kaylyn Martinez, Laura Durgerian, Logan Kelley and Nathaniel Smith.
Charlie Able is an architectural designer with a passion for addressing complex architectural challenges and gift for graphic communication. He has contributed to diverse projects from affordable housing to workplaces and city parks — including South Lake Union Block 25, Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks Park and Seattle Bouldering Project — and is a core member of the Mithun R+D team.
Architect Joe Swain brings expertise in modular and prefabricated systems to his work with climate tech clients like Heirloom, helping advance carbon removal technologies through innovative built environments. Over the past decade, he has contributed to diverse mass timber projects including affordable housing, schools, offices and industrial typologies, as well as the Mithun R+D Mass Timber Fire Testing.
Kaylyn Martinez is an interior architect with broad experience in university student life, multifamily and mixed-use housing, and workplace projects. In projects like the University of Oregon Hamilton Walton Transformation, Heartline mixed-use development and Mithun’s Pier 56 Office, she utilizes biophilic principles, healthy materials and integrated design thinking to create welcoming and positive experiences for diverse occupants.
A landscape architect and urban designer, Laura Durgerian works on projects spanning shoreline adaptation, public realm, higher education campuses and district-scale planning. Efforts like the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan, Sea2City Design Challenge and Equitable Managed Retreat R+D highlight her interest in co-created climate adaptive design that supports communities through disruption and change.
Logan Kelley is an architect experienced in affordable multifamily housing, schools, cultural centers, environmental education facilities and workplaces. An avid problem solver and collaborator, he brings together high functionality with a deep commitment to instilling a sense of place in his projects, including Casa Adelante 681 Florida, The Athenian School and UC Santa Cruz Rachel Carson Dining Expansion.
Nathaniel Smith is an architect who strives to balance imagination and intelligent technical solutions in the design of K-12 learning environments. He has contributed to campus planning and academic buildings for Annie Wright Schools, Epiphany School and The Bush School — featuring mass timber, high performance systems and humanistic principles to serve young minds and campus operations for generations.
SENIOR ASSOCIATES
Mithun has promoted Alex Ayala, Melissa Perkinson, Nazanin Mehrin and Yao Lu to Senior Associate.
ASSOCIATES
New Associates at Mithun are Adrienne Vida, Alex Keifer, Anik Alam, Chad McClelland, Claire Mardian, Emma Gaulke-Janowski, Emily Everett, Erin Wong, Gibson Bastar, Gina Gage, John Whitaker, Katelyn Williams, Ksenija Bianchi, Megan Jarvis, Sean Velazquez and Shaine Wong O’Brien.
