A decade after completing Victoria Gardens, the owner was looking to refresh the project to keep it relevant for years to come. SWA redesigned a three-block streetscape and plaza along Monet Avenue, a main retail street there. The focus is on the next generation of users, with a shopping environment that highlights the social landscape and blurs the lines between retail and recreation. The design scope included landscape, paving, fountains, site furnishings, and art interventions, with the use of drought-sensitive planting, high-efficiency irrigation, and innovative storm water treatment.
This 147-acre downtown combines the best traditions of Western American town centers with the social and planning demands of the early 21st century. Retail, office, residential, civic and cultural uses are placed within the landscaped urban experience of a traditional main street environment. The landscape framework for Victoria Gardens is a grid of local streets and sidewalks with a town square, plazas, paseos, and parks distributed throughout the downtown district. The streetscape trees are planted in beds of native shrubs and groundcovers to further enhance the garden heritage of the project.
Victoria Gardens will be the second largest open-air shopping center in the United States behind Stapleton in Denver, CO, which is being built by the same developer, Forest City Development.
Rancho Cucamonga, which is located in the Inland Empire, is expected to grow by about four million people in the next 15 years. The area has a rich history dating back to the mid 19th century. Six major trade routes passed through the area including the El Camino Real (connected the missions by a days travel), Santa Inez Trail (major trade route connecting the Colorado River to the settlements out West), and Route 66 (major vehicular route for the mass migration westward during the dustbowl and post WWII era).
You enter the site for Victoria Gardens through a formal Date Palm grove that calls back to the region’s agrarian roots while creating an identity from the nearby I-15 freeway. The downtown area is framed by parking lots containing linear planters of Bradford Pears creating an orchard-like effect. Both North and South Main Streets are lined with London Plane trees, which have a rustic quality that celebrates the passing of seasons through their fall colors. Other arterial streets are lined with California Peppers, Eucalyptus, African Sumac, and Aristocrat Pear.
Avenida Houston
SWA and the architect’s narrative of nature and industry united underscores the design of the new 140,000-square-foot (3-1/2 acre) Avenida Houston plaza, adjacent to the freshly renovated George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. Key to the theme of nature as it plays out in this new events space is the famous central flyway that offers hundreds o...
Envision Willowick
The Cities of Garden Grove and Santa Ana are developing a “vision” for redevelopment of the Willowick Golf Course site. This process explored conceptual land use options that are formed by community and stakeholder collaboration and input. The Visioning is intended to be used to guide the preparation of development plans for Willowick. The visioning...
Riyadh East Sub-Center
SWA provided comprehensive planning for a new 300-hectare commercial, mixed-use center in northeast Riyadh abutting the KKI Airport. This area is part of an urban management framework being developed to guide the future growth of the city. SWA developed a plan and implementation strategy to establish an urban center comprising residential neighborhoods, corpor...
Burj Khalifa
Playing on the theme of “A Tower in a Park,” this shaded landscape creates a compelling oasis of green, with distinct areas to serve the tower’s hotel, residential, spa and corporate office areas. The visitor begins at the main arrival court at the base of the tower, where the “prow” of the building intersects a grand circular court—a “water room” defined by f...