Reclaiming private land for public use, one of Washington D.C.’s most dangerous intersections has been targeted for vast improvements. The project kicked off with the demolition of a Wendy’s restaurant on site and implemented new road alignments to ease traffic congestion. SWA worked with NoMa community groups and the Department of Transportation on the new vision for the intersection.
For Mamie “Peanut” Johnson Plaza, named in a public vote after the first female pitcher in the Negro Leagues, the team drew inspiration from the surrounding context to develop concepts that protect pedestrians and provide sheltered areas to sit, eat, and play. Softly sloping berms are used as multi-functional elements buffering traffic, collecting stormwater, and providing sculptural seat-walls. The new design adds 75 shade trees, pollinator plantings, play elements, and protected bike lanes, reestablishing the intersection as a multimodal gateway rather than a hazard zone. In the first five months of 2025, crash numbers were already down 40% from pre-construction conditions.
Today, NoMa is one of the city’s most densely populated and transit-connected communities, home to nearly 13,000 residents navigating its streets daily. The new plaza, delivered through a partnership between DDOT, NoMa BID, and the NoMa Parks Foundation, creates safer connections between Eckington and the core of NoMa—turning a deadly knot into a safer public commons.
Shanghai EXPO UBPA (Urban Best Practice Area)
Shanghai EXPO’s Urban Best Practice Area surrounds the Plein Air Museum Park, which chronicles the unique and rich history of the site through objects of art, artifacts, and architecture. The landscape component of the museum park is expressed physically in the form of a Central Park: a gathering space and activity center for the community. The landscape was a...
Perk Park
Originally completed in 1972, this vestige of IM Pei’s urban renewal plan was built when the street was seen as a menace and parks turned inward. Rolling berms surrounded the edges and the sunken middle areas were filled with concrete retaining walls. After years of decline, Thomas Balsley Associates’ designed a plan to reunite the community with its park. The...
Griggs Park Redevelopment
Griggs Park, a historically important open space located in Uptown Dallas, had not kept pace with the ever-evolving culture and artistic neighborhood surrounding it. The new design reflects the changes in urban uses for the now-vibrant neighborhood. Established in the 1940s, the park is the first dedicated to an African American in Dallas. It transitioned with...
Great Park
One of the world’s largest municipal parks, the 1,300-acre Great Park in Irvine, California, is currently under construction with phased openings continuing through 2029. The conceptual framework encompasses redesign and implementation of near- and longer-term uses, with the intent to “put the park back into the park.” The vast site, which was once the Marine ...