“More than 30 years after Atlanta’s Freedom Park emerged from successful grassroots efforts to block a highway expansion, the need for a new vision for the park’s future has arisen. Seeking to unify constituent desires around economic viability alongside ecological value, some 70 potential initiatives were identified and prioritized according to ease of implementation, duration, and cost. Told in a compelling narrative, the People’s Plan exemplifies the imperative goals we need to achieve if we are truly to move forward as socially equitable communities.”
– 2021 ASLA National Awards Jury
In the late 20th century, Atlanta faced a critical juncture as a proposed highway threatened to tear through seven urban communities. From this crisis emerged a powerful grassroots movement whose victory not only halted the highway but birthed Freedom Park, a 130-acre green space stretching over 2.5 miles.
For years, Freedom Park existed as a patchwork of disconnected green spaces, its full potential unrealized. The Freedom Park Conservancy initiated a master planning process to transform this infrastructural “scar tissue” into “connective tissue” linking the community. The challenge: honor the park’s legacy of civic action while meeting the evolving needs of a diverse, multigenerational constituency.
Through virtual platforms, interactive tools, and targeted outreach, a true “People’s Plan” was created, identifying over 70 potential projects rooted in three guiding principles: Assembly, Education, and Connection. The final framework acknowledges Freedom Park’s position as a nexus of civil rights history, connecting Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace with the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library via the John Lewis Freedom Parkway.
By interweaving local, national, and international significance, the park tells a uniquely American story of resilience and progress. Freedom Park stands as a living testament to hard-won victories and the ongoing pursuit of equality and justice.
Winner, 2021 Honor Award – Analysis and Planning, ASLA National
Dubai Expo 2020
From October 2021 to April 2022, the City of Dubai hosted the World Expo: a large-scale International Registered Exhibition that brings nations together with universal themes and immersive experiences. It comprises an entirely new city, built on a 1,083-acre site between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Expo site is organized around a central plaza linked to three mai...
Honggang Park
Nestled between two hills in Shenzhen’s Luohu District, Honggang Park is a green corridor bringing over 80 acres of open space through the city’s dense fabric. Celebrating the site’s stark topography, SWA’s design carefully threads hiking trails along the slopes to minimize ecological disturbance, with stairs providing shortcuts along switchbacks. Altogether, ...
Homecrest Playground
Part of the larger Shore Parkway, an 816.1-acre collection of parks that stretches across Brooklyn and Queens, Homecrest Playground originally opened in 1942 with a baseball field, basketball courts, handball courts, and benches for community use. This park redesign focuses on providing different playground and recreation amenities for surrounding residents. Situated just across the bay from Hong Kong, the city of Shenzhen has transformed from a small fishing town of 30,000 to a booming city of over 10 million people in 40 years – and has grown over 200 times its original size since 1980. Along the way, the character of Shenzhen’s bayfront was radically altered. Over 65 km2 of marsh and shallow bay were filled to ...Shenzhen Bay