Kari Brooke Elwell-Katzander founded Mingo Design LLC and has over 25 years of hands on Design, Maintenance management and overseeing both small scale and large scale commercial and residential  installations.  Kari lives and breaths design. Whether it is the hunt to find the most perfect outdoor fabric made from recycled plastic bottles or applying the most cutting edge green clean-tech storm-water management practices to the landscape in a unique way, there is no question that Kari loves "Design for Designs Sake". 

In 2003, Kari was awarded the then coveted Golden Trowel Award from Garden Design Magazine for a backyard design she did in Harlem, NY.  This was the first time a designer/architect in NYC to have won this award.  Since then her designs have been featured in such publications as Dwell magazine and The New York Times.  From an MTV roof top garden to one of the largest soil based Living Walls in North America for PNC bank in Pittsburg, PA for the G-20 Summit Kari's range of landscape design skills is vast.