Designing for a Livable World
SWA is pleased to announce Gerdo Aquino and David Thompson will lead the firm as Co-CEOs. Their appointment to this enhanced leadership platform offers deeper mentorship for our staff, inspiration for our clients, and stronger support of our mission to design for a livable world. As outdoor spaces become more widely recognized as essential to community health and resilience, SWA continues to offer our clients innovative, place-based solutions—from imaginative and equitable approaches to the public realm to the integration of landscape and open space as essential infrastructure.
Gerdo Aquino
Co-CEO
Gerdo Aquino is the firmwide Co-CEO of SWA. Thinker, designer, author and educator, Gerdo is known for his research interest in re-imagining the public realm as a means to improve quality of life within the densifying urban fabric of cities and towns. Issues of urban ecology, resiliency, mobility, air and water quality, programming and access to open space frames much of his work and serves as the foundation of public lectures around the world.
David Thompson
Co-CEO
David is the firmwide Co-CEO of SWA and a project designer with a broad range of experience, from detailed site design to complex urban planning. During his 40 years as a designer and leader at SWA, he has worked mostly abroad, particularly in China, Latin America, and Russia. He has developed a flexible approach to solving design problems, exercising the tenets of landscape architecture with the subtle complexities of culture, ecology and contextual geography.