Mexico City-based landscape architect Mario Schjetnan and the firm he founded and leads, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), were announced on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, as recipients of the 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize. The biennial honor, organized by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), recognizes landscape architects whose built work promotes design excellence alongside social and environmental justice.
Why this award matters for Mexico City and beyond
The Oberlander Prize includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities to raise the profile of the laureate’s work and the visibility of landscape architecture. Schjetnan and GDU were selected by an international seven-person jury from more than 300 nominations, showing the global reach of a practice rooted in Mexico City.
What the jury highlighted
“In a time of rapidly developing megacities and cultural homogenization, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), founded and led by Mario Schjetnan, is a strong voice for social engagement and environmental justice in tandem with the art of landscape architecture,” said the Prize’s Jury. “Their work bridges the ethical and the aesthetic, advocating for access to nature in the city as a fundamental human right.”
“GDU’s portfolio of built work delivers tangible impact and a model for delivering public landscapes as essential infrastructure in a rapidly urbanizing world-home to more than half of the world’s population,” the jury continued.
Projects that defined GDU’s legacy
With GDU, Schjetnan has created an extensive portfolio of landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture across Mexico, Latin America, China, the Middle East, and the United States. In Mexico City, improvements to Chapultepec Park – the oldest park in the Americas – and the Xochimilco Ecological Park are standout examples. In the U.S., notable projects include San Pedro Creek Culture Park in San Antonio, Texas, and the Cornerstone Festival of Gardens in Sonoma, California. The portfolio focuses on water sustainability, the recycling of post-industrial sites, and the revitalization of urban and natural public spaces.
Local roots, international impact
Before establishing GDU in 1977, Schjetnan served as the first head of urban and housing design at INFONAVIT, pioneering new environmental and urban design ideas, working in 110 cities in Mexico and helping build over 100,000 homes in five years. He earned an undergraduate degree in architecture from UNAM (1968), a Master of Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley (1970), and was awarded the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard GSD in 1984.
Context and timing of the announcement
The announcement was made on October 15, 2025, and comes after the recent passing of the 2023 Oberlander laureate, Chinese landscape architect and urban planner Kongjian Yu. TCLF frames the 2025 recognition as reinforcing access to nature in cities as a fundamental right – an ethos reflected in GDU’s decades of work in Mexico City and abroad.
What happens next?
Over the next two years, TCLF’s public engagement related to the prize will highlight Schjetnan and GDU’s completed projects and the role of landscape architecture in creating resilient, equitable cities. A video in which Schjetnan discusses his life and career is available through the source link.
Source: https://bustler.net/news/tags/mexico-city/3721
