Shanti Nagel

Principal/Founding Partner

Shanti Nagel, is the founder of Design Wild and she believes that the relationship between humans and the natural world is essential for individual health - both physical and spiritual - and the strength of communities, cities, and ecosystems. Shanti comes from a long line of social activism and approaches all her work through a lens of equity and justice. First growing up gardening as a child in upstate NY, Shanti later, instead of attending collage, founded an organic vegetable farm at the age of 20. After years in operation, she moved from rural agriculture to urban agriculture, managing one of New York City’s largest urban farms. Shanti is a graduate of the School of Professional Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, a trained horticulturist and skilled landscape designer.  For the last decade, she has been dedicated to designing naturally wild and incredibly durable gardens in the heart of Manhattan for public space, community parks, affordable house and private residences. She is passionate about connecting people to the plant kingdom and involving the end user in all her designs. Above all else, Shanti believes that building lasting connections and peace through the transformative power of plants is our only way forward on earth.

Team Members

Past, present and future… magical people that make it all happen!