Nestled between two hills in Shenzhen’s Luohu District, Honggang Park is a green corridor bringing over 80 acres of open space through the city’s dense fabric. Celebrating the site’s stark topography, SWA’s design carefully threads hiking trails along the slopes to minimize ecological disturbance, with stairs providing shortcuts along switchbacks. Altogether, the plan adds or preserves over 5,000 trees.
At either end of the park, sweeping views of the city and mountains can be seen from elevated plazas, with irrigation and security systems discreetly tucked out of view. At the eastern terminus, a “hillside lounge” incorporates sky bridges with a 360-degree lookout terrace from which visitors can see the King Building, KK100 skyscraper, and clusters of new high-rises. At the western end, a multi-tiered, all-weather viewing platform offers views of the surrounding peaks, including Weiling and Yinhu Mountains, and the lush canopy swathing the surrounding park. Outfitted with broad overhanging eaves and spacious wood decks, the platform is configured for flexible, cross-season uses—from fitness and recreation to secluded cultural programs and daily activity.
Embracing the park’s elevation and infrastructure constraints while balancing its dual roles as a high-traffic public park and nature preserve, Honggang Park supports the rapidly growing population of Luohu while offering a sense of retreat and natural immersion.
Xingfa Quarry Park
Just north of Beijing, between the Great Wall and Yanqi Lake, the Xingfa Cement Plant once fueled China’s construction boom, operating for over two decades before its 2015 closure under the National Air Quality Action Plan. Today, an adjacent quarry that once provided raw materials has been remediated as a 107.5-hectare terraced park that anchors an accompanyi...
Ichigaya Forest
“Ichigaya Forest” is the privately owned, publicly accessible, major open space on Dai Nippon Printing Company’s 5.4-hectare new world headquarters in the Shinjuku Ward. Vertical development and production modernization that extends underground was made possible the creation of this 3.2-hectare open space. Over half the site is now planted wi...
Palisades Park
Santa Monica’s famous pier area draws visitors who often disregard pavement boundaries and compact the landscape soil. Palisades Park, adjacent to the iconic pier, is a particularly active site for cyclists and tourists that has long been in need of a planting strategy to discourage pedestrian overflow into the landscape. SWA’s defensive planting strategy tack...
Jeffrey Open Space Park
The Jeffrey Open Space Park represents approximately 96 acres of park and trails, with an average width of 265 ft. The three-mile long spine is designed for passive uses with a network of trails that connect to residential neighborhoods and active recreation parks.
The design process included a series of community workshops to solicit community’s commen...