Team Members
Werner Schwar, B.L.A., O.A.L.A., C.S.L.A.
Werner provides the consulting team with a broad range of personal and profession skills in environmental planning, detail design, and landscape architecture. His experience includes hands-on construction and maintenance work, as well as extensive consulting experience. This allows him to bring together design innovation and practical concerns with creativity.
He has had previous experience in developing municipal, institutional, commercial, and residential sites from the master plan scale, through concept development, and into working drawings. In all projects, Werner has strived to develop ideas that both meet the aesthetic and functional desires of future users, and the technical and budgetary constraints of the client. His experience in identifying issues, and suggesting strategies and concept alternatives has benefited many previous clients throughout northwestern Ontario.
Werner moved to Thunder Bay in 1994 and is the sole fully-accredited Landscape Architect in northwestern Ontario. He has over twenty years of experience in landscape architecture, working closely with the client to ensure their needs are fulfilled and that any new design fits into the context of the existing elements of the site itself and its surroundings.
Werner’s numerous achievements include 12 awards and scholarships prior to obtaining his degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Toronto in 1989. Werner’s university thesis, a master plan involving a non-traditional approach to a self-guided, historical, interpretive walk in Burlington’s Mount Nemo Conservation Area, won second prize in a North American student design competition sponsored by the American Society of Landscape Architects.
On the personal side, Werner has become a well-respected member of the local community due to his efforts and achievements as a Nordic ski racer and community volunteer. An ambassador to the sport, Werner participates regularly in local events, has ranked in the top-five in Canada, and represented Canada internationally. His travels in Canada, the U.S., and Europe have exposed him to many significant open spaces. Werner is also actively involved in the community as a member of the Thunder Bay Horticultural Society, Lappe Nordic Ski Club, the Mayor’s Task Force on Civic Pride and the Lake Superior Place Steering Committee.
Werner believes that a well-designed landscape environment can greatly enhance one’s recreational and educational experience with minimal negative impact on the natural environment. He recognizes that members of the public and individual interest groups often have their own diverse ideas and desires but no overall design intent or order. By working together, a strong design intent and structure can be achieved, increasing the quality and significance of the individual components. This in turn benefits the entire community by creating a public facility which the residents of a community can take pride in and cherish as a long-term investment for future generations.