“The Bagby Street Improvement in Downtown Houston sets the tone for 21st century multimodal infrastructure while stitching together civic uses along a beautiful corridor for people of all ages and abilities. It is transformational, to say the least.”
– Luis Guarjardo, AICP and the APA Houston Board of Directors 2022-2023
Inspired by the success of Avenida Houston, on the east side of the city’s Downtown, Mayor Sylvester Turner wished to create something equally iconic on the west side. Bagby Street connects civic uses (including City Hall and its annex), cultural uses (Hobby Center, Bayou Place, and others) and parks (including Sam Houston Park and Tranquility Park). It also serves as a gateway into downtown from the west side.
The project team proposed an urban trail that would establish a safe, off-street bike path through downtown, connect to major destinations, and help to stitch together the region’s emerging bike network. Connections include on-street facilities as well as links to the trails of Bayou Greenways via Buffalo Bayou. The comfortable, off-street urban trail provides a safe and pleasant environment for pedestrians and cyclists moving along the corridor.
Prior to interventions, Bagby Street was underperforming: characterized by barricaded sidewalks and crumbling wheelchair ramps. Now, this urban trail provides a safe, off-street bike path through downtown, connecting to civic and cultural uses as well as parks, and serving as a gateway into downtown from the city’s west side.
Ricardo Lara Park
Ricardo Lara Park is a vibrant city park and a case study in landscape infrastructure. It demonstrates how a small investment and creative thinking about landscape can transform the very infrastructure that has long divided and isolated a community into an amenity that unites it, offering much-needed environmental and recreational benefits.
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Santana Row
SWA provided full landscape architectural services for the development of a neo-traditional town center near downtown San Jose. The client’s vision called for a variety of design styles to create a town center with an impression of growth over time. This theme is expressed in building elevations as well as landscape design. The restaurants and boutique r...
Milton Street Park
Milton Street Park is a 1.2-acre linear urban park alongside the Ballona Creek Bike Trail in Los Angeles, California. The plan incorporates numerous green-design elements, including the use of recycled materials, native planting, flow-through planters and treatment alongside the 1,000-foot-long, 45-foot-wide stretch of land. A variety of special elements such...
Ningbo East New Town Eco-Corridor
SWA provided planning and design services for the 3.3km long, 250-acre metropolitan Ningbo Eco-Corridor, which transforms a former agricultural plain that had been taken over by industrial use into urban green infrastructure. Located in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta on China’s coastline, Ningbo is one of China’s oldest cities, with an area of 3,616 squa...