For many Muslims making the holy pilgrimage to Makkah, the journey begins in Jeddah. Recognizing the resource strain from religious tourism, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan outlined the need to address the city’s mounting concerns surrounding housing, mobility, and flooding.
SWA’s Central District master plan introduces 58,000 new accommodations with an impressive 40% of the total area dedicated to green spaces. These programs integrate with world-class facilities, including a state-of-the-art stadium, an immersive oceanarium, and a cultural hub featuring an opera house.
Sustainable mobility is a key focus, with enhanced pedestrian and cycling infrastructure integrated with mass transit systems. The Makkah Trail Park, reimagining the historic Hajj pilgrimage pathway, showcases Jeddah’s role as a gateway to Makkah.
Environmental strategies include flash flood mitigation, heat reduction measures, and native plant use for water conservation and biodiversity enhancement. Carbon reduction efforts encompass low-embodied carbon materials and energy-efficient design elements.
The project blends Al Balad and Hejazi vernacular forms with modern urban planning, creating a cohesive open space network that respects Jeddawi culture and Jeddah’s natural environment. By integrating park spaces with civic assets and designing areas to encourage socio-economic mixing, the plan aims to foster social integration and potentially facilitate upward mobility.
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
In the early 1970s, the National Park Service began the enormous task of creating a new national recreation area in the midst of an urban center—the San Francisco Bay Area, home to 4.5 million people at the time. Riding the wake of the environmental revolution of the late 1960s, the Park Service would need to find consensus among a wide range of constituents, ...
Dubai Expo 2020
From October 2021 to April 2022, the City of Dubai hosted the World Expo: a large-scale International Registered Exhibition that brings nations together with universal themes and immersive experiences. It comprises an entirely new city, built on a 1,083-acre site between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Expo site is organized around a central plaza linked to three mai...
San Antonio Spirit Reach
San Antonio’s river trail system has long stood incomplete, its northern reach at Brackenridge Park abruptly halted by a patchwork of private lands. Recognizing the waterway’s cultural significance, landowners forged an unprecedented partnership, opening sections of their properties for public benefit. The 162-acre Spirit Reach Vision Plan allows v...
Burlingame Town Square
Since its founding in the early 1900s, Burlingame lacked a signature downtown open space. In 2009, the mayor and council kicked off an initiative to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly, including enhancing the Burlingame Avenue retail main street. The capstone of that initiative is the transformation of a one-acre parking lot between Park Road and Lorton Av...