“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).
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. In 2022, the project was honored with a Transportation Planning Gold Award by the American Planning Association’s Texas Chapter, for the Houston Section.
Promenade on Forest
Opened in June 2020, the Promenade on Forest transformed one of downtown Laguna Beach’s primary streets into a pedestrian-only promenade for the summer. The effort converted a three-block section of the road from a one-way vehicular corridor with angled parking stalls into a car-free zone with cafe seating, work from local artists, and retail display areas. Th...
Culver City Medians
The Culver Boulevard Median Park has worn many hats over time, from railroad right-of-way to freeway on-ramp to bike and pedestrian conveyance. Today the Median Park is being asked to do more. Introducing below-grade stormwater management, SWA is working with the community to finesse an intricate network of stormwater, biodiversity, traffic, and program. The p...
Houston’s Gateway Art Bridges : I-59/69 Beautification
As a city dominated by freeway infrastructure, Houston will be reconstructing portions of its iconic freeways in the near future. This created an opportunity for SWA to reclaim the Houston Interstate experience with a temporary art installation that provides a bold pop of color celebrating Houston’s diversity at eight key threshold bridges along the I-59/69 co...
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...