Gerdo Aquino is the firm-wide Co-CEO of SWA, an award-winning global practice operating at the leading edge of landscape architecture, planning, and urban design. Comprised of eight studios domestically and internationally, SWA’s mission is to prioritize design as an equitable platform addressing the pressing issues facing our cities and towns. For over 25 years Aquino has worked collaboratively with communities, public agencies, institutions, and private developers in Los Angeles, and around the world, in shaping a public realm informed by natural ecosystems and guided by the current needs of our built environment. Recent work includes a planning and design studies to transform Ballona Creek in Los Angeles into a multi-benefit corridor that brings equity to people, nature, and infrastructure; urban design and resiliency planning for a 4km section of the Sava River Waterfront in Belgrade, Serbia; the development of a 400ac Connectivity Plan for the Port of Los Angeles, and a new 300ac HQ campus for Walmart in Bentonville, AR. 

Aquino is a licensed landscape architect in eight states, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University GSD. He has taught graduate design studios at the University of Southern California and the Harvard University GSDand co-authored the research publication Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA (2nd edition).

The (Kangaroo) Rat Race: Balancing Competing Water Needs for Southern California’s Future

In 1920, there were 1.6 million residents in Southern California. Today, there are over 25 million, and the region's water supply system—a complex network of reservoirs, pipelines, and aqueducts - is increasingly strained, burdened by droughts and a changing climate. Now more than ever, communities throughout Southern California are concerned about water security. The question looms: will, at some point, the tap run dry?

At the same time, California’s freshwater supply is also critical to the state’s diverse and vital ecosystems. From deltas to desert washes, water underlies California’s unique biodiversity and is crucial to the survival of numerous endangered and threatened species.

How can we negotiate between these competing demands—water for humans and water for habitat—in time of increasing scarcity? What role does landscape architecture play?

To answer this question, this presentation will take you to the edge of LA’s sprawling metropolis, where suburban development meets the mountain front, where wildfire risk is highest, and where the future of California’s relationship with water is being written. Here, on a sloping 1,600-acre property in San Bernardino County, once slated for 3,600 new homes, a municipal water district is now planning a series of reservoirs to bolster regional water supply. But at what cost to natural habitats? Is there a way to not only limit habitat destruction but enhance degraded ecosystems—while also improving water security for local residents?

It is a story that spans miles, from mountain streams to the sprawling valley below. At its heart, however, is an animal less than 4-inches long: the San Bernardino Kangaroo Rat—a tiny protagonist in the evolving relationship between humans and wildlife in water-scarce Southern California.