Griggs Park, a historically important open space located in Uptown Dallas, had not kept pace with the ever-evolving culture and artistic neighborhood surrounding it. The new design reflects the changes in urban uses for the now-vibrant neighborhood. Established in the 1940s, the park is the first dedicated to an African American in Dallas. It transitioned with the neighborhood by developing into a significant athletic park until falling into disarray in the late ‘70s. Design phases 1 and 2 provided a complete renovation into neighborhood park with landforms, pathways, gathering spots, and tree plantings. The Griggs Park master plan used the existing soil and a mature strand of trees ringing the park as primary design components; the resulting savings were used to establish remaining park essentials: walks, play areas, lighting, irrigation, seating and a significant recognition for the park’s name-sake, the Reverend Allen R. Griggs.
Resonant Memory: One October Memorial
Inspired by the shared love of country music that brought people from all over the world together for the Route 91 Music Festival, Resonant Memory is based on the shape of an acoustic guitar. The design makes particular use of the instrument’s sound hole as a recurring motif to represent absence, honoring the lives lost on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada...
Changchun Tractor Factory Renovation
Once-industrial site re-imagined as a commercial complex with eye-catching public spaces.
For this site, which was once an industrial tractor factory that epitomized Changchun’s thriving industrial past, SWA provided conceptual design through implementation to transform the former of Changchun Tractor Factory into an eye-catching public realm that fulfi...
San Jacinto Plaza
SWA’s redesign of San Jacinto Plaza, a historic gathering place in El Paso’s downtown business district provides a state-of-the-art urban open space, while protecting and celebrating the history and culture of the site. The project was the result of an intensive community process involving input from a wide range of constituents. Active programming, environmen...
Hill at Sims
Set along Sims Bayou in Sunnyside, one of Houston’s oldest historically Black communities, Hill at Sims transforms a 106-acre stormwater detention basin into a regional park that pairs flood protection with public access, ecological restoration, and everyday recreation. Built around a four-story mound of earth created during the basin’s excavation in 2005, the...