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 accompanying 17-acre research campus on the site of the plant.
Where a single willow tree once stood, the valley now supports a vast, layered network of emergent plant communities selected to adapt in rocky, alkaline soils. Native arborvitae stabilize slopes and retain moisture through summer droughts. Legume-producing species enrich the thin soil, while seasonal stands of smoke tree, mulberry, and elm provide canopy and seasonal color. Invasive plants introduced during the site’s industrial era have been cleared and replaced with species that restore soil conditions. On the southwestern end of the site, a seasonal pond has been added to retain stormwater runoff and reduce erosion across the exposed quarry floor.
Paving, walls, and trail edging were constructed using recycled stone and shale. Salvaged conveyor housings and other industrial remnants were embedded into the landscape along the “Trail of Memory,” a pedestrian spine linking the two quarry pits that pays homage to the site’s industrial past. Climbing up a nearby hilltop to an overlook pavilion, a 1.2-kilometer hiking trail provides panoramic views of the surrounding Yan Mountains.
Shenzhen Bay
Situated just across the bay from Hong Kong, the city of Shenzhen has transformed from a small fishing town of 30,000 to a booming city of over 10 million people in 40 years – and has grown over 200 times its original size since 1980. Along the way, the character of Shenzhen’s bayfront was radically altered. Over 65 km2 of marsh and shallow bay were filled to ...
Ricardo Lara Park
Ricardo Lara Park is a vibrant city park and a case study in landscape infrastructure. It demonstrates how a small investment and creative thinking about landscape can transform the very infrastructure that has long divided and isolated a community into an amenity that unites it, offering much-needed environmental and recreational benefits.
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South Waterfront Greenway
A bold new plan for the area along the Willamette River includes a 1-1/2 mile extension of the City’s downtown’s parks and the reclamation of the river’s edge for public recreation. Working closely with the City of Portland, developers, and natural resource advocates, the design team devised a rational plan that places access and activity in targeted nodes wit...
Moji Mountain Park Master Plan
Moji Mountain, one of the most distinctive symbols of Yichang, now boasts the city’s largest public open space. The 120-hectare park is located along the banks of the Yangtze River, and has a rich historical connection to both the river and the city. De-forested in the past for agricultural uses, the mountain’s slopes have been replanted and now support a new ...