people & happenings
STAFF SPOTLIGHT:
Rie Macchiarolo, Director of Gardens & Landscapes
By Andrew Gambardella, Associate Director of Grants & Communications
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Mount Auburn Cemetery’ s 175 acres include several feature gardens and character zones that are managed by Rie Macchiarolo, Mount Auburn’ s Director of Gardens & Landscapes. Get to know Rie and how they came to be at America’ s first rural landscaped Cemetery.
rowing up in western Pennsylvania, Rie Macchiarolo
G didn’ t have to look far to seek out nature. The forest behind their childhood home was a haven— a place to build forts and commune with the serenity of the natural world. Following their college education, Rie started a career in human services, working as a director of group homes for people with developmental disabilities. Then, yearning for a return to the rurality of their youth, in 2006 Rie moved to an intentionalliving and resource-sharing community in Virginia. During this time, their work in sustainable agriculture led them to pursue a Masters degree in Ecological Design from The Conway School of Landscape Design in Western Massachusetts. While in graduate school, Rie made their first connection with the Ecological Landscape Alliance( ELA) and their native-planting philosophies, which would follow them later into their career.
After the completion of their Masters degree, Rie landed in the Boston area working as a Design and Project Manager for Green City Growers— a Somerville-based organization dedicated to optimizing spaces in urban communities for sustainable food growing. Simultaneously, Rie joined the board of the ELA and became increasingly drawn to understanding plant communities, both natural and designed, and improving the health of ecosystems. Following this passion and transitioning to a role as a Field Technician at Parterre Ecological is what brought Rie to Mount Auburn for the first time in May 2020, to work on the first of three phases of the Indian Ridge Habitat Restoration project.
“ I remember how close I felt to both nature and the city at the same time,” Rie recalls of their first days on-site, removing English Ivy( Hedera helix) from the slope between Halcyon Lake and the Ridge. Working at the Cemetery at the onset of the
Above: Rie with the first tree they planted on the Ridge, a Silverbell( Halesia carolina) Below: The legendary Parterre novelty t-shirt
COVID-19 pandemic was a very grounding experience for them. Looking out at the sweeping vistas offered by the historic path being renovated, Rie understood the importance of the living beauty of the landscape as a dampener on the grief most often felt in a cemetery setting.
All was not so somber. Their first months on-site coincided with the great toad jubilee that occurs annually at Mount Auburn:“ I think that was the first time I understood the sound of toad trilling.” Rie and their Parterre workers became accustomed to working around the toadlets migrating from Halycon Lake throughout the Cemetery.“ We had a joke about their being in the rhododendrons which became a team t-shirt: Toadies in the Rhodies!”
Moved by the Cemetery and its investments in sustainable landscapes, Rie got to thinking,“ What if I could work here all year round?” Their wish came true when they joined Mount Auburn’ s Horticulture team in the spring of 2023. In January 2024, Rie was promoted to Director of Gardens & Landscapes where they now oversee a team of 18 who tend the shrubs, perennials, and flowering bulbs across the landscape.
“ Collaborating with my team is the most rewarding part of it all,” Rie says. While maintaining the standards set by Cemetery documents such as Mount Auburn’ s Master Plan( 1993) and Wildlife Action Plan( 2015), Rie also values the unique perspectives and collective work of their team— harkening back to their days in the intentional-living community in Virginia. A confluence of these standards and historic photos of Mount Auburn’ s landscape— alongside institutional knowledge from leaders such as Dennis Collins, Horticulture Curator, Paul Kwiatkowski, Director of Urban Ecology & Sustainability, and Ronnit Bendavid-Val, Vice President of Horticulture & Landscape— come together to create a magnificent topography of plant life in harmony with tens of thousands of monuments.“ Nothing ever seems out of place,” they muse humbly. We have Rie Macchiarolo in large part to thank for that.