John Wong, Managing Principal, Chairman

Since joining SWA in 1976, John has directed an array of projects, from the design and crafting of small gardens to the large-scale planning and design of neighborhoods, towns, and new communities. He has extensive experience in both North America and Asia—particularly in Japan, Korea, and China. Over the past two decades, John has led more than 125 campus improvement projects at Stanford University, including the award-winning DAPER Master Plan and the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts.

Interests

Public-oriented projects (campuses, places of work, places of living); creative problem solving; collaboration with the best minds in the design field “to push the envelope, raise the bar.”

Inspired by

BY: Great design, in whatever form: the French gardens of LeNotre; 15th and 16th-century Italian gardens; 20th-century Minimalist artists (Richard Long, Sol Lewitt, Donald Judd); Japanese Zen gardens.

Design Philosophy

Collaboration is key. Stay open to suggestions and design ideas from all the players in the project—clients, architects, artists, engineers—and let the best idea move forward.

Affiliations

Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects, Institute of Urban Design, and the American Academy in Rome; Member, The Urban Land Institute.

Education

Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design, Harvard University Graduate School of Design; Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture with Honors, University of California at Berkeley; Associate in Arts with Honors, City College of San Francisco

Awards

2005 ASLA National Honor Award and Northern California Chapter Award of Excellence: Lite-On Headquarters, Taipei, Taiwan.

2003 ASLA National Merit Award: Tokyo University Foreign Studies, Fuchu, Japan.

2002 AIA, San Francisco Chapter Honor Award: Stanford Graduate School of Business-Knight Building, Stanford, California.

2002 Pacific Coast Builders Conference Gold Nugget Merit Award: Stanford West Apartments, Palo Alto, California.

2001 AIA California Council Merit Award for Historic Preservation/Renovation: Toyon Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

1999 ASLA National Merit Award: DAPER Master Plan, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

1999 The Governor's Historic Preservation Award, California: Stanford University for Encina Hall; Green Library; and The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford, California.

1998 AIA California/East Bay Honor Award: Bentley School, Lafayette, California.