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.
Haikou Wuyuanhe Cultural and Sports Park
Haikou Wuyuanhe Cultural and Sports Park is a new landmark in Haikou, the coastal capital of Hainan. At its center, the Wuyuanhe Stadium, designed by gmp architects in the form of a crescent, anchors the park as the island’s first large-scale sports venue, with over 41,000 seats and a design that maximizes views of the South China Sea, natural shading, and ven...
Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel
SWA provided full landscape architectural services for this mixed-use development, which includes a 120-room luxury hotel, five villa residences, a supporting office complex, fitness center, spa and multi-use space. The Sand Hill Hotel and associated offices are nestled onto a dramatic hillside that slopes toward the Santa Cruz Mountains immediately beyond I-2...
Avenida Houston
For many visitors, the George R. Brown Convention Center serves as Downtown Houston’s gateway. Ahead of hosting the Super Bowl, city officials sought to transform the convention center’s uninspiring eight-lane drop-off into a pedestrian plaza for civic enrichment, art, and leisure. SWA took on this ambitious 140,000-square-foot redesign, converting five city b...
Regus Crest Grand
The Regus Crest Grand course is a private membership course designed for tournament play with a single story clubhouse. The clubhouse is sited to maximize views of the course and its surrounding hills. The heavily forested site is preserved and is enhanced and supplemented with new landscape. Water features are used to accentuate the hills beyond the course wh...