SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio River Authority (SARA) and Bexar County project management staff are pleased to announce the addition of internationally-renowned landscape architect Mario Schjetnan Garduño, with the firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), headquartered in Mexico City, as a consultant with the San Pedro Creek Project design team.
Schjetnan is an award-winning landscape architect who, with more than four decades of experience, is recognized internationally in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. In 1977, Schjetnan founded GDU, a firm specialized in planning, urban and landscape design, which has executed a wide range of projects including parks, plazas, housing developments, museums and cultural centers in Mexico, the United States, South America and the Middle East. Schjetnan’s work includes numerous award-winning projects relevant to the San Pedro Creek Project such as Canal de la Cortadura in Tampico, Mexico, Xochimilco Ecological Park in Mexico City, and Zacatecas Ecological Park in Zacatecas, Mexico learn the facts here now. Schjetnan has also collaborated throughout his career with the prestigious Ricardo Legorreta, who designed the San Antonio Central Library. Most recently, the two worked together on the notable Bicentenario Improvements Park located in Mexico City; Legorreta as the architect and Schjetnan as the masterplanner and landscape architect.
Schjetnan is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), member of the Academy of Arts of Mexico, and recipient of the 2015 Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award from the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), the highest recognition of Landscape Architecture.
In addition to Schjetnan’s practice, he is also a respected teacher conducting workshops and studios in the United States and throughout the world. Schjetnan has been a prominent professor and guest speaker at many renowned institutions, including: Harvard University, University of California Berkeley, University of Arizona, University of Texas, University of Virginia, as well as Universities in Mexico such as: Universidad Iberoamericana, A ITESO Guadalajara, University of Baja California and Universidad del Bajío, Aguascalientes. He has also participated in worldwide seminars and conferences, has been published in professional magazines and authored numerous books.
“As we near the completion of the final design, the addition of Mario Schjetnan and GDU to the design team will provide an opportunity to enrich the landscape design for this unique cultural park,” stated Suzanne Scott, SARA’s General Manager. SARA serves as the project manager of the San Pedro Creek Project. “His previous work on similar projects will bring valuable insight to the team to enhance the user experience, integration with future development and the landscape planting palette.”
The scope of GDU’s work will be further defined during Schjetnan’s visit to San Antonio to tour San Pedro Video Creek and view the current designs in mid-October. While in San Antonio, Muñoz & Company, who serves as the lead architect on the project, will host Schjetnan to share the goals and objectives of the project and the current design documents, with a focus on working to finalize a design that will make San Pedro Creek a park celebrating the heritage and culture of San Antonio.
“The Commissioners Court has been very impressed with the project designs presented by Muñoz & Company, particularly the color, patterns and textures reflecting our city’s Hispanic roots and traditions,” stated David Smith, Bexar County Manager. “As a landscape architect who has worked on numerous urban parks, Schjetnan’s consultation will only enhance these design concepts.”
While visiting San Antonio, Schjetnan will also meet with County Judge Nelson W. Wolff, Commissioner Paul Elizondo, and Councilman Roberto Treviño as well as members of the San Pedro Creek subcommittee and business and property owners along the creek.
“It is a true honor and pleasure to participate with Bexar County and the San Antonio River Authority in the exciting San Pedro Creek Project. I look forward to bringing my experience and talent to the team,” stated Schjetnan. “I have continually visited San Antonio since 1968, during the opening of the World’s Fair and more recently, as lecturer at the San Antonio Museum of Art.”
The caliber of the design team chosen, alongside Schjetnan’s guidance, matches the task of transforming San Pedro Creek into a unique cultural park. “GDU is a welcome addition to our team composed of designers, storytellers and historians,” says Henry Muñoz III, CEO of Muñoz & Company. “We want to be sure that our landscape design best represents the distinctive character of San Antonio’s Mexican and Mexican-American influenced environment in the creation of what will be a linear park like nowhere else in the world.”
Steven Land Tillotson, design principal with Muñoz & Company, commented that GDU’s main focus will be on the creek designs north of Houston Street where the creek is to be a more natural landscape and where private development plans along the banks are underway. “This is where redevelopment plans have rapidly emerged in response to the project and the opportunity for a more integrated design is vital, not just for the landowners, but ultimately for San Antonians who will be living and working in a new urban community.”
For more information on the San Pedro Creek Project, please visit www.spcproject.org.
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The San Antonio River Authority (SARA) was created by the 45th Texas Legislature on May 5, 1937 and reorganized in 1961 to plan, manage and implement water-related programs and projects within the San Antonio River Watershed. The State of Texas empowered SARA to preserve, protect and manage the resources and the ecology of the San Antonio River and its tributaries. To learn more about the SARA, visit our website at www.sara-tx.org.
