ABOUT THE FOUNDER
MEET BETHANY BOWYER KHAN
Arcadian Revival is an idea that’s been stirring inside for years out of a desire to live more intentionally. Driven by values placed on cultivating community, being stewards of our environment, and seeking and surrounding ourselves with beauty, Bethany strives to set an example for her children and for leaders of the next generation.
Bethany is a creative entrepreneur who is motivated by making the world a more beautiful place. Bethany’s first renovation and design projects began as a baby, alongside her family, soaking up her mother’s design craft and watching her Pap’s carpentry and masonry skills shape their home. Bethany grew up on forty acres of land in northeast Ohio that has been in her family for more than a century, now spanning five generations. A love of the outdoors was embedded in her identity through the fields, woods, creek, pond, berry bushes, and gardens of her family’s property. Growing up renovating their family farmhouse and breathing new life into its heirloom gardens alongside her parents, a love of renovation, old buildings, and nature runs deep within.
Before founding Arcadian Revival in 2021, Bethany gained more than a decade of experience living and working in New York City across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. As a Project Manager for one of the city’s largest real estate developers, she managed design, planning, and construction across multi-million dollar ground-up multifamily developments, a large-scale commercial office renovation, industrial repositioning, and a long-term educational master plan development project.
Her experiences includes overseeing the strategy to achieve New York City’s only LEED Platinum landmarked office building at 550 Madison Avenue, where she also oversaw the project’s WELL Gold certification effort as part of a major building renovation and repositioning.
Bethany oversaw design and implementation of interiors fit-out and styling efforts at multiple real estate development projects including building lobbies, leasing offices, model units, and amenity spaces including outdoor terraces and community dining areas, a children’s playroom, fitness centers, and more.
In 2016 Bethany flipped her first real estate development asset: a prewar condominium unit in Brooklyn, New York. Bethany used her urban planning background to understand the market and her creativity to make key upgrades for the sale. Her calling to design and create only grew with the endeavor.
Bethany has strived to make a positive impact in every role she has taken, committing herself to leave a place better than she found it. With a knack for bringing people together, Bethany spent more than three years leading large-scale neighborhood development initiatives including engaging hundreds of community members to envision a more than 40-acre plan to create park space on government-owned property in the heart of Brooklyn, New York.
Bethany also oversaw economic development and sustainability policy in the Mayor’s Office at the City of New York, where she managed the transition away from polluting heating oils and oversaw contractors repairing homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy.
While Bethany has casually always told people that she really just wants to fix up old buildings and longed to get her hands back in the dirt while living without her own garden space for years in Brooklyn and Manhattan, she significantly invested in her corporate and fast-paced career for years.
She now leverages her unique skill set to offer services to others and to create a company that fits into a lifestyle that feels more aligned with her values surrounding family, connecting to nature, and building community.
Bethany earned a master’s degree from Columbia University where she studied multiple disciplines including within the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in both Urban and Regional Planning and Public Administration.
Bethany studied Building Systems Engineering at New York University, which covered topics such as lighting, heating, and electric system design. In 2018 Bethany earned her LEED AP accreditation.
Today, she lives in Upstate New York with her husband, two children, and dog Hudson. She is focused on what she wants to focus on during this chapter of her life: her family and laying the foundation for this creative pursuit that she sees lasting and growing in the years ahead.
