Beijing Xingfa Cement Plant Quarry, founded in early 1990s, an exposed scar of rocks locates between the Great Wall and Yanqi Lake, is being reconsidered into an ecological and picturesque rural park in relationship with the adjacent regenerating cement plant. Established around the contextural culture, research, and technology oriented position, the design focuses on bringing in potentiality of hosting acceptable scale of outdoor culture and art events. With a sunken water space and an elevated rock space, the park stretches itself between silence of meditation and excitement of otherworldness. Carefully considered cliff stabilization, rock reuse, industrial acessory reuse, water collection, and planting species strategies allow the park to become an incubator of ecology, culture, and art, inversing a history of negative intervention towards landscape to a rebirth and return of liveness towards land and its belonged culture in general.
As the initial phase of the project, a hiking trail with the associated driveways was first constructed to establish initial image of the project. Reused quarry rocks and carefully considered natural water management methods portrayed a highly ecological integrated landscape. A top hill pavilion introduces phenomenal views, setting a solidity of industrial memory with corten steels, and strengthened design languages.
Elk Grove Civic Center
SWA’s design for this community resource improves upon part of a 56-acre master plan with a civic center campus set within a beautiful park, and an added public outdoor commons. The pedestrian-friendly commons weaves new buildings together with mature trees and an outdoor living space linking together a community center, an aquatics center, and a future librar...
Katy Trail
Katy Trail represents a remarkable resource for the residents of the Dallas Fort Worth region. This project enlivens and makes accessible right-of-way established by the storied, but later abandoned, Missouri-Kansas-Texas (better known as the “Katy”) line, and serves as a unifying element for the surrounding neighborhoods. Katy Trail provides appro...
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...
Dallas Arboretum: A Tasteful Place
A year-round “food oasis” awaits visitors at A Tasteful Place, a new edible/display garden within the Dallas Arboretum. A continuation of SWA’s Arboretum work (which includes Red Maple Rill and the Children’s Garden), A Tasteful Place provides visual and hands-on education about plants and herbs that can be used in visitors’ daily cooking and explored in...