Johanna Barthmaier-Payne

Johanna Barthmaier-Payne is a landscape architect and cofounder of A TON, a multidisciplinary design studio that provides environmental advocacy and experiential education through landscape architecture, industrial design and graphic design. In her professional practice and research she examines the relationships between multiple scales of urban design, dynamic ecological and cultural systems, and community collaboration.

Leveraging her expertise as a graphic designer, artist and visualizer, Johanna explores and communicates large-scale ecological opportunities involving social and environmental issues in urban and built environments. She is dedicated to advancing knowledge on how ethical design, narrative, and visual communication can educate and support the broader public and promote nature-based solutions in design.

Johanna is a principal investigator for the Sustainability Design Lab (SDL), a five-year endowed curricular sequence focused specifically on materials commonly found in the New England region. The SDL explores creative approaches to sustainability through the study of materiality, material culture and the material processes that inform professional practices and the built environment.

She also serves as principal investigator for Equitable Nature-based Climate Solutions (ENACTS) a four-year, multi-institutional collaboration supported by the National Science Foundation. The partnership is focused on building environmental advocacy on nature-based design solutions (NbS)—specifically around stormwater management in medium-sized cities with high socioeconomic diversity in their populations that suffer from climate-related flooding and heat island problems. The research, supported by local knowledge and integrated social and natural sciences, engineering, art and design, will create an ecosystem of academia, government and communities to support more informed and equitable NbS decision-making and implementation.

Johanna has worked with internationally renowned firms such as James Corner Field Operations, OLIN and Atelier Jean Nouvel, contributing to a diverse range of projects from concept to construction, including The Presidio Tunnel Tops Project in San Francisco, the Seattle Central Waterfront and the Seattle Seawall. She also holds a BFA in Environmental Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She graduated with a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was an ASLA Excellence Award recipient.