John Royster

Big Muddy Workshop Begins

John Royster’s goal in founding BIG MUDDY Workshop in 1990 was to provide landscape architectural services that celebrate and conserve the landscape. Further, Big Muddy projects encourage people to encounter natural landscapes so they can form positive emotional relationships with the land. John named the firm BIG MUDDY Workshop, to reflect the firm’s roots in the Missouri River region and its “Workshop” practice approach with designers, clients, and contractors as collaborators and not adversaries.

John foresaw the importance of offering a higher level of environmentally responsible design in landscape architectural projects. He believes that master planning and land design must respect and work within natural systems and the cultural landscape.

In addition to leading Big Muddy, John is the firm’s primary master planner and is actively involved in the firm’s projects. John has been designing sustainable landscapes since long-before “green design” became a common slogan. Under his leadership, Big Muddy has become a well-known and sought-after designer of parks, nature centers, ecological restoration sites, green infrastructure projects, trails systems, and historic landscape preservation.

Innovation, creativity, scientific soundness, sustainability, cultural sensitivity and fulfilling his clients’ desires and needs are the hallmarks of projects designed by John and the Big Muddy team. During his career John has lead projects ranging from $100,000 to $4,000,000. A key factor that John brings to every design process is his ability to assist clients in defining their goals and objectives, and then helping them determine implementation priorities and strategies to meet their vision, budget, and schedule.

John enjoys working with people of diverse viewpoints, engaging with them during the planning and design process. He encourages participants to make the project “their project.” He is skilled at public facilitation and enjoys the interactions that occur during public meetings.

Raised in a religious tradition that champions social justice and equality, John has served on the boards of several state and local non-profits, donating countless hours of his time and donating the services of Big Muddy to provide pro-bono design services for several non-profits. John’s commitment to community service has been acknowledged by his receipt of national, state and local service awards.