Arts and Architecture/Performing Arts Alumni Board Member Biographies

Frederick Bonci
bonci@laquatrabonci.com
Pittsburgh, PA
Penn State Degree: Bachelor of science in landscape architecture, 1973
Position: Founding Principal, LaQuatra Bonci Associates

Career Moves: Frederick Bonci is a founding principal of LaQuatra Bonci Associates, established in 1984. He has been a leader of many of the firm's community planning, urban design, and public open space projects. His knowledge and extensive experience with urban initiatives has lead to an ever-increasing number of commissions both nationally and internationally. The firm’s work focuses on the creation of viable and sustainable urban neighborhoods and towns that integrate natural systems, public open spaces, and parks. Projects include the design of urban parks and park master plans, green initiatives and ecological framework studies, riverfronts, urban neighborhoods, town planning, and site-specific landscape design projects.

Professional Affiliations: Fred is currently a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, The Urban Land Institute, and the Congress for the New Urbanism. In the recent past, he served as Chairman of the Western Section of the PA/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Community Service: Fred has served as President of the Pittsburgh Dynamo Youth Soccer Association; President and Vice President of St. Edmund's Academy Board of Trustees as well as Chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee; Board Member of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh; and Charter Member of the Pittsburgh Parks Initiative Committee.

Matthew Connors
matt@blue-soho.com
New York, NY
Penn State Degree: Bachelor of arts in visual arts with concentration in Drawing and Painting, 1993
Position: Studio Chief, BlueSoho Digital Art Development

After graduation from Penn State, where he was introduced to Photoshop 2.0, a revolutionary program which forever changed the way he looks at the printed image, Matt spent several years working as a freelance graphic artist, illustrator and 3D artist. In 1997, he joined the burgeoning New York City Imaging Division of Quad/Graphics and rose to the position of color sponsor with clients such as Gruner & Jahr, Hachette Filipacchi Media, Hearst Magazines, Time Inc. and Conde Nast Publications. In that role, Matt worked on thousands of images and hundreds of covers for Fitness Magazine, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire and House and Garden. When Quad/Graphics opened a new facility in San Francisco, Matt was appointed to the founding team and quickly promoted to operations manager. He returned to New York City in 2006 to open and lead BlueSoho, a Quad/Graphics premiere digital art development venture to tap the fashion, cosmetic and editorial market.

Special Interests:Matt is a member of the National Association for PhotoshopProfessionals, Computer Graphics Society of Digital Artists, and stillindulges his love for illustration and painting.

Daniel S. DiMucci, RLA, ASLA
ddimucci@pennoni.com
West Chester, PA
Penn State Degree: Bachelor of Science in landscape architecture, 1969
Position: Senior Vice President, Pennoni Associates Inc., a multi-discipline consulting engineering firm headquartered in Philadelphia.

Career Moves: Upon graduation from Penn State in 1969, Dan spent two years in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, followed by fifteen years with GWSM Inc., Landscape Architects, Pittsburgh. PA. After completing his master's degree in planning at the University of Pittsburgh, Dan relocated to Philadelphia to become director of land development/site design for Pennoni Associates. Dan is a past president of the PA/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and currently serves on numerous professional and business committees throughout the Delaware Valley.

Special Interests: An avid sports fan (especially of Penn State), Dan also enjoys golf, music, and working with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Charles Fox
chfox@state.pa.us
Somerset, PA
Penn State Degrees: Bachelor of arts in art history, bachelor of arts in history, 1988
Position: Historic Site and Museum Administrator, PA Historical and Museum Commission

Career Moves: From 1991 until 1997 Charles worked at Curtin Village, a 19th century iron plantation in Howard, PA, first as a historical interpreter, eventually as site administrator. Since 1997 he has worked for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission as the administrator of the Somerset Historical Center, a rural history museum located in Somerset, Pennsylvania. Charles additionally served as acting director of the Fort Pitt Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2000 and 2001. Most recently he has become heavily involved with the temporary memorials to the crash of United Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA on September 11, 2001, overseeing artifact collections, working with the State Museum of Pennsylvania and the Smithsonian Institution on exhibits, and helping to lay the groundwork for an eventual permanent memorial to be located in Shanksville.

Special Interests: Music, sports, motorcycles, fine arts, and (of course) history.

Mark Hackenburg
mhackenburg@rgsassociates.com
Elizabethtown, PA
Penn State Degree: Bachelor of Science in landscape architecture, 1988
Position: Principal, RGS Associates

Career Moves: Mark joined RGS Associates in 1996 as a landscape architect with site planning and design expertise focused on continuing care retirement communities and active adult communities. His background also includes site designs for churches, residential communities, commercial, institutional and industrial land developments, park and recreational facilities and campus master planning. The majority of his career has been focused on creating "places"to live, particularly for the retirement and active adult sector. He is passionate about the power of well designed communities and the implementation of effective land use planning tools to impact how communities take form. He is committed to developing more "livable" communities based on consumer preference, and many of the projects he and his firm have worked on are designed to create a "sense of place" focused on the human scale, with transit-friendly, identifiable neighborhoods. As one of the owners of the firm, he serves as a principal-in-charge and is responsible for overseeing the preparation of conceptual design alternatives, site development plans, sewer and water facility layouts and stormwater management design solutions. He is also responsible for project administration, project schedules and budgets and supervision of design teams from the preparation and presentation of plans for agency approval through the contract document phase and into construction.

Christopher Hanes
cchanes@comcast.net
Philadelphia, PA
Penn State Degree: Bachelor of Fine Arts in theatre arts, 1990
Position: Technical Director, Opera Company of Philadelphia

Career Moves: Chris has worked in many theaters throughout the country and some not-so-nice roadhouse. He has done musical theater in Maine, television in Atlantic City, dramas in Miami and operas in Seattle, but his favorite place to be is back in Philadelphia. He is the technical director of the Opera Company of Philadelphia and teaches at the University of the Arts. Chris is a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) #8 in Philadelphia and is a life member of the Penn State Alumni Association.

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