After winning a design competition in 2017, SWA undertook two projects within the Guicheng Riverfront park system, a defining blueway and leisure loop belt. The two completed parks – South Bank Waterfront Park and Eco-Island Park – are designed with distinct programmatic elements and characters based on the riverfront’s surrounding land use and urban settings, assisting the region in its transition from transportation and industrial uses to a more leisure-based orientation.
The three-kilometer-long South Bank Waterfront Park encompasses several distinct character zones, offering leisure, recreational, and event spaces for diverse users in surrounding residential communities as well as Nanhai’s financial district. The design was inspired by Foshan’s riverside history and dragon boat races, as well as by a phrase from a renowned poem: “A hundred barges are vying forward; a thousand boats are competing across the river,” These thematic elements were incorporated into the landscape, creating a distinctive series of outdoor places, water features, and furniture.
Eco-island Park is located on the west bank of the Pingzhou River, outside of the city levee system. The park seeks to establish balance within a dynamic river environment, accommodating rapidly fluctuating flood waters while establishing a restored riparian landscape. The park provides a valuable urban destination with passive recreation opportunities through a network of trails, viewing decks, restored beachfront, and children’s play environments to provide an immersive experience for a wide range of park users. The design also established a network of lakes and wetland waterways to filter stormwater and relieve hydraulic stresses on the park.
San Diego Embarcadero
The redevelopment plan for the waterfront and port facilities adjacent to downtown San Diego included translating community and economic requirements into a specific planning program. Emphasis was placed on urban design, circulation and parking, landscaping, environmental planning, and engineering considerations with a set of comprehensive implementation guide...
Aitken Place Park
Aitken Place Park is at the heart of Toronto’s East Bayfront Community – an area transformed from an underutilized industrial brownfield into a vibrant waterfront neighborhood. Flanked by the residential development to the west and the commercial buildings to the north, the park’s water’s edge location creates a unique destination that invites residents, touri...
Kula Belgrade
The landscape of the St. Regis Belgrade creates a dynamic public space at the nexus of several major roadways and the city’s bike and pedestrian waterfront path. Drawing from Belgrade’s urban culture, natural context, and layered history, the design introduces a central urban waterfront space at the heart of Kula Belgrade, celebrating a new destination for the...
Sava Promenada at the Belgrade Waterfront
This one-million-square-meter waterfront development, the single largest regeneration project in Serbia’s history, aims to create a world-class, sustainable destination for civic and cultural attractions, forging human and physical connections to the Sava River where none existed before. Located near the historic town center of Belgrade, the site’s...