Gerdo Aquino is an academic design critic, lecturer, and landscape architect whose research into innovative new materials and landscape technologies for public and/or private open spaces transforms post-industrial, urban waterfronts into viable places for people, commerce, and tourism and helps to shape the future growth of global cities. “With urban densities on the rise, cities are poised to exemplify greatness or self-destruction,” he says. “My projects in these cities seek to mediate the extremes and bring a sense of stability to the disparate communities and districts that make these cities livable. I see my practice as a dynamic mix of landscape architecture and urban design.”

Gerdo’s work focuses on under-utilized or abandoned urban and suburban infill sites that nonetheless “have the potential to enhance their existing surroundings through creative programming and natural systems integration.” Clients enlist him to assemble innovative teams where specialization is both required and necessary given the complex issues facing contemporary landscape architecture projects around the world. His longstanding interest in Asia began at Harvard, where he co-founded the Graduate School of Design’s first Asian student organization, AsiaGSD. He also has extensive experience in the analysis and planning of multi-scaled ecological corridors and repurposed streets and plazas in urban areas of North America, Asia, Russia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

Gerdo co-authored Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA, encompassing much of his current thinking about landscape architecture, both professionally and academically. The book received an ASLA National Honor Award in Communications.
He received a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the University of Florida. Gerdo is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and a member of the Central City Association of Los Angeles.

He is an adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture in the Master of Landscape Architecture Degree Program at the University of Southern California.

Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the University of Florida

Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects

Associate Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA), Los Angeles Chapter

Member, Urban Land Institute

ULI Urban Open Space Award – Community Impact; Ricardo Lara Linear Park (2018)

ASLA Southern California Chapter Honor Award, Ricardo Lara Linear Park (2018)

Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) Under Construction Award, The Culver Steps (2018)

University of Florida, Distinguished Alumnus Award (2017)

AIA Los Angeles, Residential Design Award, Crest Apartments (2017)

AIA CA Council, Merit Award, Crest Apartments (2017)

AIA Los Angeles, Merit Award, Samsung American HQ (2016)

ASLA Southern California Chapter Merit Award, Milton Street Park (2016)

ASLA Southern California Chapter Merit Award, Oxnard Green Alleys Plan (2016)

APA Award of Merit for Planning Best Practices, West Hollywood West Overlay District and Design Guidelines (2015)

ASLA Southern California Chapter Merit Award, LAVC Urban Forest Master Plan (2014)

ASLA Southern California Chapter Merit Award, Landscape Infrastructure: Essays and Case Studies (2012)

ASLA Southern California Chapter Award of Excellence, Gubei Gold Street (2012)

ASLA Honor Award, Gubei Gold Street (2012)

Arbor Day Foundation – Tree Campus USA, LAVC Urban Forest Master Plan, Valley Glen, California (2012)

Westside Urban Forum, Merit Award, Milton Street Park (2011)

ULI Finalist for Award for Excellence: Gubei Gold Street (2011)

Ideal Space Book, Best Open Space in China, Gubei Gold Street (2010)

ASLA Honor Award, Zobon City Sculpture Garden (2009)