Rialto Studio is born of a strong vision of landscape architecture and steeped in a collaborative team approach to project delivery, fully integrating design disciplines.

Rialto’s Founding Partners and Principals – James Gray, Kenneth Fowler, and Peter Hinton - bring over 80 years of combined professional experience to the leadership of the firm. The three partners spent crucial formative years together in the office of the renowned Texas architect O’Neil Ford, who famously and deliberately blurred the lines of distinction between the various design disciplines in his firm. Ford favored a team approach to problem-solving and believed that successful design was not the single purview of one discipline or another. This experience forms the core of Rialto’s design philosophy and professional practice, one of full integration of design disciplines into a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to projects, and one which encourages teams that are led by landscape architects.

Although Rialto is still a young firm – it was founded in 1998 - one significant characteristic of Rialto’s practice is the history of constructed projects by its principals. Each of the partners has project experience from work in other offices and – together - Gray, Fowler, and Hinton have been designing and overseeing construction of projects of all scopes and shapes since their initial association in the early 1980’s. They share a mutual commitment to the delivery of quality work. This seasoned experience of creating buildable and memorable works accrues to every new project.

During earlier employment, Gray, Fowler, and Hinton participated on the design teams that produced such work as:

• Dallas Cowboys Headquarters and Training Center
• Downtown TriParty Transportation Improvements Project
• Hyatt Hill Country Resort
• Johnson Street Bridge
• Paseo del Alamo
• San Antonio’s Rivercenter
• Sea World of Texas
• Wolff Municipal Stadium
• Houston National Cemetery

Rialto Studio takes a reasoned approach to its work, born of its principals’ long history of dealing with myriad project issues and potentials. Projects are produced and managed in an intelligent and deliberate manner by teams of designers and technicians under the guidance of one or more of Rialto’s principals. Rialto’s practice is built upon a framework of thoroughness and attention to detail, and an abiding empathy for the character and sense of a place.

Hand-in-hand with its practice of landscape architecture, Rialto believes strongly in service activities and in the mentoring of young professionals. Service activities of Rialto’s principals are largely focused on the American Society of Landscape Architects. These commitments by Rialto’s principals are meant to foster an office environment of professionalism and service, signaling Rialto’s firm belief in the future of landscape architecture.