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Inspired by the pre-Columbian myth and colonial history of his native Mexico, as well as twentieth century art at home and abroad, Mario Schjetnan has emerged as “one of the contemporary world’s most versatile and accomplished landscape architects,” according to critic John Beardsley. His work ranges from development of housing and parks for the urban poor to the design and environmental restoration of Mexico City's Xochimilco Ecological Park, a park nestled within a 3000-hectare landscape of canals and artificial garden islands that date to the 10th century.

As an architecture student at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) from 1963–68, Schjetnan studied under Ricardo Flores and Alvaro Sanchez and befriended modern architects Luis Barragán, Max Cetto and Mario Pani. After earning a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Berkeley in 1970, Schjetnan worked as chief of design at INFONAVIT, Mexico’s federal institute for worker’s housing. In 1977 he opened his own interdisciplinary firm in Mexico City, Grupo de Diseño Urbano, with architect José Luis Pérez as his principal partner.

Mario Schjetnan and his firm have won numerous national and international awards in architecture, urban design and landscape. Among the most important are the Green Prize in Urban Design from Harvard University for Xochimilco Ecological Park in 1996 and the Latin American Grand Prix from the Biennial in Architecture in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the Museum of the Northern Cultures of Mexico in Paquimé, Chihuahua in 1995. Schjetnan received the 1989 President's Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects for Tezozomoc Park in Mexico City; the 1998 President's Award of Excellence from the ASLA for El Cedazo Park in Aguascalientes, and a 1992 Gold Medal from the Mexican Biennial of Architecture for Culhuacán Historical Park in Mexico City. More recently he won a silver medal from the Mexican Architecture Biennial for the restoration of Mexico City's Chapultepec Park in 2006, a 2007 ASLA Honor Award for Casa Malinalco in Malinalco, and a 2008 ASLA Honor Award for the Promenade fountain at Chapultepec Park in  2008.

Mario Schjetnan has given numerous workshops and studios in several universities including Harvard University in 1994, 1998 and 2005. From 1999 to 2001 he was director of the School of Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He held the Beatrix Farrand Chair in Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley and the Federico Mariscal Chair in Architecture at UNAM in 2001. In 2006 he was the Ruth Carter Stevens Chair in Landscape Architecture at the University of Texas in Austin and in 2007 he held the Talbott Chair in Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. He has lectured at universities in the United States, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico, Australia, Mexico, Uruguay, China and more.

Schjetnan’s work has been documented in the books Landscape, Architecture and Urbanism (Spacemaker press, 2007), Ten Landscapes: Mario Schjetnan (Rockport Publishers, 2002), and Arquitectura, Ciudad y Naturaleza (CONACULTA-INAH,1997). He is co-author of the book Principios de Diseño Urbano-Ambiental (Pax-Mexico, 2004).