Summertime is in full throttle and adventures are out there! This past week, President Glen Schmidt and designer Jesus Alán Figueroa were honored to speak at a conference hosted for them at the Instituto Cultural Mexicano-Norteamericano in Guadalajara Mexico.

The conference was organized by seven Architecture and Engineering organizations in Guadalajara. They invited us there to talk about the value of landscape architecture in design, sustainability, and to share highlights of our firm’s work. With 150 people in attendance varying from students to working professionals, Glen Schmidt communicated his initial message discussing the value of landscape architecture providing “Ecosystem Services”. How nature and landscape provide both environmental and human health and well-being benefits within our built environment.  Our talented designer Jesus Alán assisted Glen with translating the bilingual presentation, sharing his journey to the profession, and fielding questions. Leading into the latter half of the conference Glen shared slides of many of our projects that emphasize the value of our sustainable and artful approach to design.

Schmidt Design Group wants to deliver a special thank you to the seven A/E organizations that assisted in coordinating this conference together, especially Architect Jesús Velasco y Orozco.  It was an honor to be invited and we are glad to witness growing interest in landscape architecture, sustainability, and human health and well-being improvements with our southern neighbors.

At this moment we also want to send out our condolences to the family and friends of Señora Ana Velasco who graciously spent much of her time with Glen and Jesus Alan during their visit, including a beautiful meal at her home.  As much enjoyment as the trip featured, we are sad to hear about her sudden passing and send our sadness, well wishes, and thoughts to her family and friends in their time of need.