Chase Center, the new Golden State Warriors’ arena, anchors and enlivens San Francisco’s emerging Sports and Entertainment District. Integrated along a transit corridor within a formerly industrial part of the city, this new 24/7 facility offers a venue for events of many scales as well as a central public open space that doubles as the neighborhood’s outdoor living room.
To create an inviting destination, landscape designers at SWA created a series of plazas that are at once distinctive and flexible. These public outdoor spaces are tucked and wrapped around the arena building at varying levels, offering discrete nooks or view platforms of different sizes and perspectives. A large, publicly accessible central plaza comfortably accommodates crowds during large events, and can be configured to meet different programmatic needs. Custom-designed planters/seating modules can be deployed throughout to frame different events or uses, such as ice skating, farmers’ markets, an instant micro-garden, or a car show, and can also aid pedestrian flow during large events at the arena.
Whether they have game tickets or not, visitors are invited to stroll up a grand staircase to take in spectacular views of the Bay, enjoy a picnic lunch, visit the retail and dining outlets, or meet friends for a movie alfresco.
Landscape design unifies and supports those activities with an environment that is strategic and sensible, attractive and sustainable. In fulfilling San Francisco’s strict codes for water runoff, designers created a special terraced garden along 3rd Street that defines both defines the new space and reveals the bio-filtration process by which plants help to cleanse all water on site. Native California planting throughout the ten-acre parcel of land conserves water, provides a shade canopy, and unifies the area’s character.
325 5th Avenue Plaza
A new residential tower has risen across the street from the Empire State Building. As a zoning incentive, a new public plaza was included to attract and accommodate the area’s tourists as well as its diverse office and residential neighborhood. The space is defined by a clean, contemporary design composition of spaces, elements, and custom furniture meant to ...
Gubei Gold Street
SWA was selected to conceptualize, design, and realize a rare find in bustling Shanghai—a pedestrian mall (Gold Street). The corridor occupies three city blocks, is flanked by 20-story high-rise residential towers with retail at street level and book-ended by SWA-designed parks. Creating an iconic presence and enlivening the area, the mall features plazas, fou...
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
This office building’s roof garden celebrates a potent image of the native Texas landscape: the level, grass-covered plains emerging from a wooded riparian area. A design vocabulary of native, drought-tolerant plant materials, especially selected to react to light and air movement, reinforces this design approach. The project serves as a two-acre rooftop garde...
Poly Zhuhai
Poly Zhuhai, a large mixed-use development, is located at the central axis of Hengqin Island, a transformed landfill site near Macao. The site is south of the small Hengqin Mountain, facing a civic sports park on the other side.
The main office tower has a large, square footprint, elevated six to seven meters above the street level, with retail programs...