About
M Design Collaborative is an evolving practice with a two-fold mission: We strive to fulfill our clients’ requirements as architects. We also challenge ourselves to originate projects as developers. In both endeavors, we search for innovative design solutions that enable joyous living while enriching the neighboring context. Undergirding our mission is our insistence on collaboration among trusted partners-fellow designers, builders, artisans, and clients.
Jane Ahn
Principal, RA
Jane arrived at architecture following a six-year stint as a management consultant in banking and healthcare fields. While on a consulting engagement for a major hospital that had just opened an I. M. Pei-designed ambulatory care center, Jane had an epiphany that she would rather grapple with the intricacies and implications of the built environment than focusing on maximizing corporate profits. Jane earned both her undergraduate degree in Economics and master’s in Architecture from Harvard University. Though she began her professional architectural training at the office of Peter Rose in Cambridge, Jane credits the capable and caring Philadelphia architects, builders, artisans, and clients as the true teachers who have shown her what it means to be an architect. Jane lives in Center City with her husband, three children and one sassy Havanese pup.
Richard Conway Meyer
RA, FAIA (1993)
Building on a lengthy history of successful design experience, Dick believes that significant architecture is the result of shared aspiration of collaborative partners, including clients and technical consultants who understand and respect the work, and builders who price, schedule, and touch the work with their hands. Shared aspiration results in something that is often greater than the sum of its parts. Dick’s work has been published in architectural press; he is the recipient of numerous design awards, including an AIA Silver Medal for the boat house at St. Andrews School in DE.
Kim Kearns
Originally from Northern California, Kim attended U.C. Berkeley and began her professional career in advertising. Seeking new experiences and a different career path she moved East, earning masters degrees in Historic Preservation and Urban Planning from Columbia University. After several years in the New York City Department of City Planning, she moved to the not-for-profit sector as Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. At GVSHP she led the successful effort to declare Stonewall a National Historic Landmark, and initiated the campaign that led to the designation of the Gansevoort Market (the “meat-packing” neighborhood) as a New York City Historic District. Kim lives in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia with her husband and two children. When the couple engaged Jane Ahn several years ago to design a renovation of their townhome, the architect/client relationship turned out to be highly collaborative, prompting a decision to continue their synergy in meeting other clients’ requirements at M Design Collaborative.
John Yeager
The principal of YEAGER’S BUILDERS, John has collaborated with Jane over numerous projects, deemed successful particularly from the point of view of clients. He is devoted foremost to quality assurance and customer satisfaction, with a strong belief in “taking the extra time to do the job right.”
Michael Iaonnone
Michael has been the incomparable go-to source for Jane for a wide range of ‘drop-dead gorgeous’ custom architectural millwork over 15 years. Michael graduated from Rowan University in 2000 with a BFA in Studio Art and is the founder of IANNONE DESIGN located in Elmer, NJ.