Lecture: Mario Schjetnan
Co-sponsored by the School of Architecture, the Department of Landscape Architecture, and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning
As an architect, landscape architect, and co-founder of Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), Mario Schjetnan is known for designs in which buildings are secondary to landscape. Schjetnan studied architecture at the National University of Mexico, receiving an undergraduate degree there in 1968. He then earned a Master of Landscape Architecture degree, with an emphasis in urban design, at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1970.
Schjetnan describes ecology as the organizing principle of his work, and he views public parks as an expression for environmental justice. For more than 50 years, he has designed projects with a heightened awareness of the environmental and social consequences of urban development. Among his most recognized works are Parque Tezozómoc and Parque Ecológico Xochimilco, both in Mexico City, and Parque Recreativo el Cedazo in Aguascalientes. Other landscape projects include Union Point Park in Oakland, California, and the transformation of a PEMEX oil refinery in Mexico City.
Schjetnan and GDU have received multiple prizes from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), including the ASLA President’s Award for Excellence (for Parque Recreativo el Cedazo); the Prince of Wales/Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (for Xochimilco Ecological Park); and the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Prize, the highest honor awarded by the International Federation of Landscape Architects, for Schjetnan’s “realization of many important projects, but also as an academic, sharing his knowledge and passion for the profession with others.”
In the event that Mr. Schjetnan is available to travel to campus, this lecture will take place in person at 134 Temple Buell Hall (Plym Auditorium), 611 E. Lorado Taft Dr., Champaign, IL.
It will in any event be livestreamed on Zoom. To access the Zoom platform, please register.
For more information about this and other events in our spring 2022 series, please contact Prof. Conor O’Shea.