The Cultural Landscape Foundation ("TCLF"), a Washington, D.C.-based education and advocacy non-profit established in 1998, has announced that Mexico City-based landscape architect Mario Schjetnan, and the firm he founded and leads, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), are the recipients of the 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.
© The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Schjetnan and GDU, a landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture firm founded in 1977, have worked extensively throughout Mexico, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States. The biennial Oberlander Prize includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate's work and landscape architecture more broadly.
Schjetnan will be a featured speaker in the forthcoming Oberlander Prize Forum Soak it Up: Los Angeles, CA on December 5, 2025. Schjetnan and GDU were selected by an international seven-person jury from more than 300 nominations received from around the world.
The Oberlander Prize winner's qualifications include being "exceptionally talented, creative, courageous, and visionary" and having "a significant body of built work that exemplifies the art of landscape architecture."
The Oberlander Prize Jury Citation notes: "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. Their work bridges the ethical and the aesthetic, advocating for access to nature in the city as a fundamental human right."
It also states: "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 Oberlander Prize website includes a written biography of the laureate, a twelve-minute introductory video about Schjetnan and GDU, and a trio of four-minute-long videos about signature projects.
For more information:
The Cultural Landscape Foundation
tclf.org/
