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30-502: The park was designed by Mario Schjetnan , and opened in 1982. It is near the El Rosario  [ es ] residential neighborhood, and was built on the land of the former Hacienda del Rosario. It an important public open space , sports and recreational area, and a point of reference landmark for northwestern Mexico City. In the park's center there is a large pond with a 'nature reserve' island. The Museum of Regional Art, and

60-569: A linear park which tied together the residential clusters and separated automobile and pedestrian circulation. The plan was built, but not according to Royston's specifications. Royston's innovative park work also began during the 1950s. His first major commission was the Standard Oil Rod and Gun Club (1950) located at the Standard Oil Refinery near Point Richmond, California , and was a recreation facility for workers at

90-550: A place of high ecological value. The pond has many migratory bird species, and resident bird colonies on the island. They include the white heron and many species of ducks and some varieties of invertebrates. The pond has many aquatic species too, including those introduced by local people, such as the Asian carp (Carp of Israel) and the Japanese turtle . The parklands and its trees support various species of squirrels . There

120-543: A talent for drawing, dramatic performance, and athletics. One teacher advised him to be either an attorney or a ballet dancer . He pursued instead his interest in design and the outdoors and upon graduation in 1936 enrolled in the program for "Landscape Design" in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley . Royston's mentor, H. Leland Vaughan, allowed him to experiment on his own with

150-412: A teaching position at the University of California Berkeley while continuing his professional practice. His students included both architects and landscape architects. His teaching career at Berkeley ended in 1951 when he resigned after refusing to sign a loyalty oath. Soon after leaving Berkeley, he accepted a part-time position at Stanford University and later at North Carolina State University . Over

180-462: Is a forest of Ahuejote ( Salix bonplandiana ) , a tall willow tree native to the region. 19°29′57″N 99°12′34″W  /  19.49917°N 99.20944°W  / 19.49917; -99.20944 Mario Schjetnan Mario Schjetnan is a Mexican architect and landscape architect that manages to "unite social concerns, aesthetics and, increasingly, ecology- all by way of interpreting and celebrating Mexico's rich and diverse culture." He

210-739: Is co-founder of the interdisciplinary firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano in Mexico City known for designs in which the building is subordinate to the landscape. Among his numerous awards are the Prince of Wales/Green Prize in Urban Design for Xochimilco Ecological Park and the ASLA President's Award for Excellence for Parque El Cedazo. Schjetnan was born in 1945 in Mexico City, a climate that gave him an immense appreciation for water that would appear in his later works. His paternal grandfather

240-579: Is increasingly becoming the organizing principle of his work." He is now inspired by architects such as Renzo Piano , Tadao Ando and Norman Foster in addition to environmental artists such as Doug Hollis , Richard Long , and James Turrel . Mario Schjetnan views public parks as an expression for environmental justice - an extension of the public housing work he did at INFONAVIT. He works with low budgets, basic materials and modest details while gaining financial and political support by linking public spaces with infrastructure improvement. He acknowledges

270-609: Is perhaps best known for his important innovations in park design. A recent book, Modern Public Gardens: Robert Royston and the Suburban Park , details this area of his professional creativity and philosophy. Royston was born in 1918 in San Francisco , California. He grew up on a farm in the Santa Clara Valley of Northern California in the town on Morgan Hill . As a high school student he demonstrated

300-401: The "landscape matrix," which he defines as "the linking of open space as a continuous system throughout the community establishing a strong framework whereby communities are controlled and given form." An early application of the 'landscape matrix' was the plan for a 258-acre (1.04 km ) cooperative housing project, 'Ladera' (1946), near Portola Valley, California . Royston's design featured

330-739: The Mission District (by architect William Wurster ), the Potrero Hill Housing project, and the large Park Merced Apartment complex near the Pacific Ocean. He also was an early member of 'Telesis', an informal group of designers concerned with environmental problems of the San Francisco Bay Area . Here he met several of the architects he was later to collaborate with on various projects as well as his future professional partner, Garrett Eckbo . With

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360-652: The Museum of Three Dimensional Art, are both located on the northern perimeter. A scaled representation of the Valley of Mexico as it was in the Prehispanic (pre-16th century) has been created by Schjetnan, using berms and hills. Signs around the pond describe the features around historic Lake Texcoco , that dominated the valley basin then. The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was on an island in Lake Texcoco. Today,

390-649: The attention of the Bay Area planners representing several municipalities. Royston soon was given important park and playground commissions, many of which gained attention in the national media. Among his more important works were Krusi Park in Alameda, California ; Pixie Park in Ross, California ; Bowden and Mitchell parks in Palo Alto, California (1956); and, later, Santa Clara's Central Park (1960). Royston rejected

420-848: The course of his career he taught and lectured at over twenty-five colleges and universities in the United States. Royston's early professional work was concentrated in Northern California and at first consisted mostly of residential site planning and garden design. This was a period of astronomical growth fueled by the post-War economic boom and an acute shortage of housing. Most of this growth occurred as low- density suburban development, where Royston did much of his work. His practice soon expanded to include parks, plazas , and planned residential communities. Royston collaborated on numerous residential projects with many notable San Francisco Bay Area architects. His site plans emphasized

450-517: The firm of Eckbo, Royston, Williams, and formed a new professional office with Asa Hanamoto. The firm developed into Royston, Hanamoto, Alley and Abey (RHAA) which is still in existence today. Robert Royston was the recipient of many professional awards, including Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects , 1975, The American Institute of Architects Medal in 1978, and in 1989 the American Society of Landscape Architects Medal ,

480-707: The importance of landscape to both individual memory and public history by utilizing "critical regionalism": "self-reflective adaptation or transformation of both modernist and traditional design languages." The result is a "metropolitan ecology" in which architecture, urbanism, and nature coexist in a dynamic mosaic. 1. Tezozomoc Park 2. Malinalco House 3. Mexican Cultural Center 4. Culhuacan Historical Park 5. Xochimilco Ecological Park 6. Parque Bicentenario 7. Malinalco Golf Club 8. Archaeological Museum 9. Parque El Cedazo 10. Chapultepec Park 11. Paquine Pueblo Museum 12. Cornerstone Garden 13. TecnoParque Robert Royston Robert N. Royston (1918 – September 19, 2008)

510-453: The integration of indoor and outdoor space and elegant, functional garden rooms for outdoor living. Royston's specific design vocabulary of layered, non-axial spaces and bold asymmetrical arcs and polygons suggests such influences as analytical cubism , biomorphism, and the rectilinear geometry of Mondrian 's paintings. The approach to architectural space of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier are also clearly visible. Royston regards space as

540-553: The middle where the child is farthest from parental aid. In Royston's design vocabulary there is no art for art's sake. Design form is always directly related to use and the psychological effect of space on its participants. For Royston, landscape architecture "Practices the fine art of relating the structure of culture to the nature of landscape, to the end that people can use it, enjoy it, and preserve it." In dealing with more complex projects such as planned residential communities, Royston developed early in his practice his concept of

570-431: The new design perspectives emerging in the innovative work of Thomas Church and the more avant-garde explorations of Daniel Kiley, Garrett Eckbo , and James Rose. Royston's interest in painting, which he continued to pursue in order to explore aesthetic principles applicable to his design work, can be traced to the studio art classes that were a part of his early education. While working his way through college, Royston

600-527: The notion of parks as primarily outdoor gymnasiums catering to a narrow range of age groups. He envisioned parks as "public gardens" serving a wide range of users, including families, very young children, and the elderly. Many of his parks contain residential scale elements such as pergolas and enclosed patio-like areas that create a sense of familiarity and intimacy. Royston also designed urban plazas, such as San Francisco's Portsmouth Square and St. Mary's Square city parks. (1952). In 1958 Royston amicably left

630-730: The outbreak of World War II, Royston volunteered for the Navy and served as a junior officer in the Pacific theatre. In his spare time aboard ship, Royston experimented with design ideas, building models of residential gardens and creating jewelry out of scrap materials. In 1945 Royston returned to the Bay Area and accepted Garrett Eckbo's invitation to form a partnership with him and landscape architect Edward Williams. The new firm, Eckbo, Royston, and Williams, eventually established offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1947 Royston accepted

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660-420: The park is a recreational center in this area of the city. It provides a place for socializing, amusement, and recreation, with: walkway promenades , 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) cycle way, playgrounds , lawns and park benches, refreshment stands, and a skating rink . It has many sports facilities, such as: an outdoor gym, basketball courts, volleyball courts, and tennis courts . Parque Tezozómoc also provides

690-418: The primary medium of design and insists on the absolute necessity of integrating design form with human use. For example, in a typical Royston park design, a wading pool for young children may be laid out as a visually engaging biomorphic form but at the same time is scaled to the distance a parent's voice can reach. The depth of the pool would also reflect function over pure form in that it would be shallowest in

720-408: The refinery. Royston's carefully zoned design provided a gymnasium, swimming pools, imaginatively designed custom play equipment, family picnic areas, and several multi-use areas in a series of skillfully layered spaces on the site of a former skeet range and fishing pier. The biomorphic forms he employed were reminiscent of his residential design work. The facility was an immediate success and attracted

750-545: Was a railroad builder and Norwegian immigrant . His father was an architect, professor and golf course designer while his mother had a degree in history and was interested in literature and theater. His parents' professions helped to inspire his own interests in 20th century modern architecture, pre-Columbian myth, and colonial history. Schjetnan attended National University of Mexico (UNAM), where he received an undergraduate degree in architecture in 1968. There, he studied under such names as Ricardo Flores and Álvaro Sánchez and

780-603: Was also interested in the revolution and work of leftist artists such as Diego Rivera , José Clemente Orozco , and Juan O'Gorman . Shortly after his graduation from UNAM, the events surrounding May 1968 in Paris and the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City inspired Shjetnan to design for social needs at the INFONAVIT (Mexico's federal institute for workers' housing). Now with over 40 years of experience in his firm, "ecology

810-696: Was appointed a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard Design School and received an honorary PhD from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in 1995. In contrast to his father's inspirations, young Mario was influenced by Mexican Modern Architects such as Luis Barragán , Max Cetto , and Mario Pani . In terms of landscape design, Schjetnan was drawn towards the works of Luis Barragán, Roberto Burle Marx and Lawrence Halprin . He

840-519: Was employed part-time in the office of Thomas Church and upon graduation in 1940 became a full-time employee. At the time Church was expanding his practice, which had been centered primarily on residential gardens, to include the design of larger-scale planned residential communities and college campuses. Young Royston was given major responsibilities on such San Francisco projects as the Valencia Gardens Housing Project in

870-529: Was one of America's most distinguished landscape architects , based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. His design work and university teaching in the years following World War II helped define and establish the California modernism style in the post-war period. During his sixty years of professional practice Royston completed an array of award-winning projects that ranged from residential gardens to regional land use plans. He

900-494: Was taught the international designs of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn . Mario went on to get a master's degree in landscape architecture with an emphasis in urban design from the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design in 1970. At Berkeley, he was taught systems theory, ecological planning, and social inquiry techniques by Garrett Eckbo , Robert Royston , Donald Appleyard , and Ian McHarg . In 1985 Schjetnan

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