About Us.

 THE STUDIO

Indigo River is a NYC SBS Certified Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) committed to helping our society evolve. Our work, often at the water's edge, responds to local conditions, yet retains universal values.

OUR VISION
​
We are faced with inconvenient truths: climate change, hyper-urbanization, and rising economic and social challenges. Transdisciplinary Design has the power to organize ideas, raise awareness, and enable action towards global goals. A vision for our future, one project at a time.

OUR MISSION
​
As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, defined by technologies which fuse the physical, digital, and biological worlds, we believe that now, more than ever, a single idea can have a butterfly effect -- that each project can create global impact. It's what drives our mission to create sustainable, resilient, progressive solutions for tomorrow's world.

What We Do

THE TEAM

We're not one thing, we're many things: visionaries, architects, engineers, artists, technologists, planners, futurists, athletes, programmers, musicians, partners, nature enthusiasts, and human beings. We draw inspiration for our innovative services from our interdisciplinary experiences.

Dena
​Prastos, AIA

Dena is the President of Indigo River. Her expertise is in waterfront architecture, planning, and construction management.  

Shea
​Thorvaldsen

Shea is the President of sister company, TMS Waterfront, and a partner in Indigo River. Shea is the Executive Manager for all waterfront, planning, and due diligence operations.​

Brian
​Buckman, PE

Mr. Brian Buckman, PE is our technical director and lead engineer. His experience is extensive; from bridge and seismic design and retrofits, to floating bridges, marine structures, and port facilities. He has extensive mechanical and electrical experience for movable bridges as well​.

Darryl
​Zuk

Mr. Darryl Zuk is our senior Project Manager. He has extensive experience with the City of New York, including working for the NYCEDC and as a waterfront PM for multiple developments up and down the Brooklyn coast. He is an architect by trade.

Eleanor
Beckwith

Ms. Eleanor Beckwith, ENV SP, is our environmental and sustainability staff member. Her experience is extensive on remediation and brownfield sites, waterfront shorelines, and holistic designs for integration of structures and nature.

Connor
McKeon

Mr. Connor McKeon is our naval architect on staff for all things floating, not sinking. He has modelled and built concrete barges for equipment, our 700 ft attenuators at the marina, and specializes in safety and access analysis from land to floats.

Dena A. Prastos, AIA

Principal & Founder

Architect, engineer, futurist, and creative original. With transdisciplinary and progressive views, Dena is inspired by the overlapping of design, technology, & nature. 
​
As a licensed Architect with a graduate degree in Civil Engineering, Dena has lead projects around the world directing infrastructure construction, marine engineering, and the design of waterfront architecture.  These experiences helped shape her vision and competency in construction, engineering, and architecture. It is on these pillars, that Indigo River was conceived.
​
Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, she has a deep-rooted appreciation for nature and mankind’s ability to design, build, and create resilient and sustainable infrastructure in some of the world’s toughest conditions.