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Alumni Awards List

JOHN ROYSTER is an inspiring role model for design students.

A native of Canistota, South Dakota, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from South Dakota State University. John completed a Master of Landscape Architecture degree at Kansas State University in 1984 where he fulfilled both teaching and research roles, as well as worked for the campus planning office.

After 10 years of successful international and national practice with other firms, John achieved his goal of founding his own practice, located in Omaha, Nebraska, to provide landscape architectural, land planning and interpretive planning services. The firm's name, The Big Muddy Workshop, reflects John's strongly held belief that landscape architecture is best practiced as a regional art. It also affirms his belief of the uniqueness of the Missouri River ecosystem and the Native and Euro-American cultures that inhabit the region.

As firm principal, John works with each client, directs project design and sets the course for future firm growth. John currently serves as Consulting Landscape Architects to the National Arbor Day Foundation and is responsible for assisting in implementing the master plan he developed for Arbor Day Farm, a National Historic Landmark property in Nebraska City. On the Missouri River Corridor Project, John was responsible for the 2,000 acre Boyer Chute Master Plan that provides resource-based recreation while enhancing wildlife habitat and restoring 1,600 acres of native plant communities. At another Corridor Project, John designed an interpretive structure based on the Omaha Tribe earth lodge and interpretive panels which explain Omaha culture to site visitors.

John is a registered professional landscape architect in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota, and is a member and past chapter president of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He is married to 1983 KSU MBA graduate Katie Blesener.