Bob Retnauer became interested in Landscape Architecture through the game of golf. He began playing with his Dad and Grandfathers in the mid-1970's and started to learn about golf course design through books and magazines. Around 1976, a national golf magazine held a contest to design the ultimate golf hole and this fostered an interest in redesigning holes at his home course. He would draw out the holes on graph paper and use colored pencils to define greens, tees and fairways.
Thinking he would like to be a Golf Course Architect, Bob began studying at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS in 1979 and soon realized there was much more to the Landscape Architecture profession than just golf. He worked summers during College at William T. Schmitt Associates, a St. James, NY Site Engineering/Landscape Architecture firm. After College, he went to work at WTSA full time and became an Associate and a fully licensed Landscape Architect in New York.
In 2000, Bob Joined the firm of Landtech Design, L.A.P.C. of Port Jefferson, NY, as a Partner and Principal. In mid-2001, his partner, J. Scott Lewendon, decided to relocate to Albany, NY and Bob and new employee, Steve Stritzl, opened their own firm in June 2001.
Building on their experience with school and sports facility design, Bob and RDA teamed up with many metropolitan NY Architects to provide site planning, site engineering and landscape design services for many local school districts. They also worked with local developers in developing residential communities and with municipal agencies in designing parks and public plazas.
In 2006, Steve Stritzl relocated to Chesapeake, VA and they opened a second office named Retnauer Stritzl Landscape Architects, PLC (RSLA). This new office concentrated on the design of rental communities, commercial centers and governmental/military site design in the Tidewater and northern NC regions. Both offices continue to flourish with new and ongoing projects and are continuing to expand and establish new Client relationships each year.