SWA’s master plan for the three Nordic Events venues—the Ski Jumping, Cross Country Skiing, and Biathlon stadia and courses—honors the natural beauty of a spectacular Olympic Winter Games landscape as never before. The venues were originally slated to be located in separate valleys, requiring athletes and spectators to travel between sites. But in PyeongChang, SWA departed from that logic and instead took their cues from the landscape itself, resulting in the most compact design in Olympic Winter Games history. Locating all events in one valley achieved two goals: creating the most efficient and exciting experience for athletes and visitors to the Games, and minimizing disruption of the region’s steep terrain and pristine pine forests. In PyeongChang, pedestrians flowed along a continuous promenade between these venues, saving hours of shuttle bus time while also being immersed in a high-octane sports experience. The arrival sequence to the Ski Jumping Stadium is choreographed to build viewer excitement, beginning with a plaza flanked by three practice jumps, the monorail station—which transports athletes, coaches, and officials to the tower and Large Hill and Normal Hill in-runs—and culminating in the Ski Jumping Stadium itself. The design was created for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games bid and ultimately built to bolster Korea’s successful 2018 bid. The venue remains active in summer with an 18-hole golf course, roller-blade training, and a soccer pitch, replacing the snow sports.
Hokkaido Ballpark Master Plan
This project includes a new ballpark for Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, the surrounding landscape, and surrounding future development parcels, in Hokkaido, Japan. Inspired by the stadium’s architecture, which responded to a building type original to Hokkaido, the design incorporates indigenous landscape features, including a 100-year forest and a ravine, while ...
Park Hyatt Cabo del Sol
Perched along the Sea of Cortez along the Baja peninsula, the Park Hyatt Cabo del Sol announces the brand’s debut in Mexico. The region is celebrated for its dramatic meeting of desert and sea, offering year-round sunshine and a tropical desert climate defined by warm days, ocean breezes, and minimal rain. Located along the tourism corridor between San José de...
Miwok Aquatic and Fitness Center
Nestled in Novato’s rolling Oak woodlands, the College of Marin’s Miwok Aquatic and Fitness Center provides Northern California with a new destination for aquatic training and competitions. Part of the College’s Indian Valley Campus, the center neighbors over 1,400 acres of open space preserves. ELS and SWA worked closely to lay out the site ...
Miller Lite House Plaza
Gameday celebrations begin before entering the stadium for Dallas Cowboys fans at AT&T Stadium, among the largest NFL venues. The Miller Lite House Plaza is anchored by a 70-yard turf football field, aligned to match the stadium field orientation with matching graphics. Existing Live Oak groves were maintained to the north and south of the field, creating ...