Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park has been heralded as Tampa’s missing “here” and the crown jewel in the city’s Riverwalk, a bold urban plan conceived to reactivate the Hillsboro River and downtown Tampa. The master plan sets the park as the district’s focal point, positioning the Riverwalk, museums, and park buildings to the park and the waterfront. The plan boldly called for the removal of an old museum and sprawling parking garage that had denied the city access to its riverfront.
The park’s southern border connects with the renovated Kiley Garden, which had previously been elevated above grade, discouraging public access and enjoyment. A pedestrian bridge now connects both park spaces and gives new meaning to the garden. The Tampa Museum of Art and Glazer Children’s Museum have sprouted culture and family activities at the park, near the Great Lawn, an area surrounded by trees and scaled to accommodate large and small events. The lawn is framed on either end by fountain plazas that can become venues for larger festivals. The design carves into the sloping topography to reveal terraced lawn panels that spill down from the museum terraces and garden promenade. A linear park pavilion with restrooms, offices, a café, a visitor center, and a restaurant with unparalleled river views activates the southern edge.
The interactive louver and mist fountains at either end of the park are designed to capture Tampa’s imagination while cooling its residents. Distinctive fountains, pavement, and pylon lights extend the nighttime draw of citizens to the glowing park. Located along the Riverwalk and taking sculptural cues from the Museum of Art are a contemporary play area and urban dog run. Innovative lawn rafts, timber chairs, concrete loungers, and picnic tables reflect a commitment to 21st-century comforts beyond the conventional bench, drawing enthusiastic crowds to downtown Tampa’s new front lawn.
Rio 2016 Olympic Park Competition
SWA was awarded 2nd place in the 2016 Olympic Park Competition in Rio de Janeiro for their master plan and landscape architecture proposal. The Olympics will be located on a 118-hectare site in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. The underlying concept of ‘Embrace’ weaves through the design in a grand planning gesture, which both defines the Olympic Games and...
Shunde Guipan River Waterfront
SWA participated in a competition reimagining 19-kilometers of the Guipan River waterfront in Shunde, China. While the Pearl River Delta is one of the fastest growing regions of Southern China, one of the many casualties of this growth was the delta itself. Presently, Shunde has a growing flooding problem enhanced by channelizing, condensing, and containing th...
Changsha Baxizhou Island
Over many decades, public agencies in China have sought to solve growing flooding issues in a defensive way: fortifying and hardening river edges, raising levee heights, and ultimately separating the people from historical connections to the water. With an understanding of river flow processes and volumes and of wetland and native forest ecology, this separati...
Ningbo East New Town Civic Plaza
As an extension of the Ningbo East New Town Government Center, this civic plaza extends the geometry and ecology of SWA’s past work in the city. A central civic axis runs from the government buildings to the Dongqian Lake edge, providing a large, flexible gathering/event space adjacent to an expansive lawn as well as sweeping views of the water. Per city plann...