As a city dominated by freeway infrastructure, Houston will be reconstructing portions of its iconic freeways in the near future. This created an opportunity for SWA to reclaim the Houston Interstate experience with a temporary art installation that provides a bold pop of color celebrating Houston’s diversity at eight key threshold bridges along the I-59/69 corridor. After winning a design competition held by Houston First Corporation, SWA developed a cost-effective and easily implementable urban art intervention that creates an impact perceptible at both a large scale and a high speed of travel through the freeway corridor. Spanning eight gateway bridges that connect some of the City’s most vibrant neighborhoods, a ribbon graphic featuring an artistically interpreted image of Houston was printed on plastic strips and woven into the existing 6 foot tall chain link fence railing.
The pixelated mosaics were derived from photographs taken by Houston school children in a project developed by Geoff Winningham and his wife, Janice Freeman. This urban art installation epitomizes the uniquely Houston experience through freeway infrastructure, the diversity of Houstonians, and the future of Houston. This approach to urban art in the right-of-way is an initial step in SWA’s vision for a larger beautification program of Houston’s Freeways.
To make the Houston Bridges project a reality, Houston First Corporation partnered with a consortium including Scenic Houston, TxDOT, HISD, the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and Sparq 1200, in addition to SWA Group and Rice Professor/Author Geoff Winningham.
Thousand Oaks Urban Forestry Master Plan
While residents and businesses are clearly proud of the City of Thousand Oaks’ two-decade-long “Tree City USA” designation, recent drought conditions created an urgent need for the City to decrease grassy landscapes and update maintenance practices. As a key part of these efforts, the City selected SWA, along with team partners Planning & Energy/Entitlemen...
Tianjin Eco-City
The vision for Tianjin Eco-City is of a socially harmonious, environmentally friendly, and resource-efficient model for sustainable development. The new city encompasses two flagship civic projects: the National Maritime Museum and the surrounding South Bay Park. South Bay Park is the project’s central green infrastructure, but also provides a significant outd...
Bagby Street Improvement Plan
Inspired by the success of Avenida Houston, on the east side of the city’s Downtown, Mayor Sylvester Turner wished to create something equally iconic on the west side. Bagby Street connects civic uses (including City Hall and its annex), cultural uses (Hobby Center, Bayou Place, and others) and parks (including Sam Houston Park and Tranquility Park).
Th...
Hunter's Point South Waterfront Park
Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park was envisioned as an international model of urban ecology and a world laboratory for innovative sustainable thinking. The project is a collaboration between Thomas Balsley Associates and WEISS/MANFREDI for the open space and park design with ARUP as the prime consultant and infrastructure designer.
What was once a ba...