Over many decades, public agencies in China have sought to solve growing flooding issues in a defensive way: fortifying and hardening river edges, raising levee heights, and ultimately separating the people from historical connections to the water. With an understanding of river flow processes and volumes and of wetland and native forest ecology, this separation can be assuaged, reconnecting communities to their waterfronts while responding to periodic flooding.
Located on the Xiang River in China’s Hunan Province, the 63.3-hectare Baxizhou Island is a private refuge covered with poplar trees and structures no longer in use. The conceptual design plan created a network of berm-buttressed paths, with terraced edges that create multi-level wetland system around the island: islands to the south, and small peninsulas, linked by a meandering boardwalk network. These peninsulas’ grass-lined channels lie beneath shallow water the majority of the year; however, during the flood season, the entire system is completely submerged.
At the island’s highest grades, private villas and a tennis facility are proposed. These are designed to be self-sustaining and integrated within the landscape, hidden within a forest wall. The island itself provides various opportunities for visitors to enjoy its natural beauty and newly thriving ecology.
High Island Audubon Canopy Walk
High Island, Texas, a salt dome mound amidst the Gulf Coast flats, has been an active site for oil extraction over the past century. Today, it is primarily known as an international birding destination, with an outstanding variety of migratory birds that visit and nest in the nature sanctuaries managed by the Houston Audubon Society. SWA worked with HAS to dev...
Guthrie Green Park
Guthrie Green transforms a 2.6-acre truck yard into a lively urban park in the heart of downtown Tulsa’s emerging arts district. Opened in September 2012, Guthrie Green has become the area’s leading destination, drawing 3,000 plus people weekly to activities that have enriched the urban experience and spurred district-wide revitalization. The high-performance ...
San Pedro Waterfront Connectivity Plan
Spanning over 460 acres and 8 linear miles of waterfront, the Port of Los Angeles is among the most important pieces of infrastructure in the Western Hemisphere—the largest container port in the U.S., a linchpin for global logistics, and an industrial hub critical to San Pedro and L.A. County at large.
Today, the Port is imagining a more connective, acc...
Jin Hai Wan Riverfront Park
Located along Chongqing’s Jialing River, this new linear public park offered unique challenges: a 30-meter annual river fluctuation, steep topography, and low-impact maintenance of a continuous riparian corridor. Adjacent new urban development, with attendant needs for green space, called for a flexible and resilient approach to the park’s landscape and infras...