The largest urban public park ever built, King Salman Park is a defining element of Saudi Vision 2030—an ambitious effort to transform Riyadh into a more livable, sustainable, and globally competitive city. Envisioned as the “Green Lung of Riyadh,” the 16.6-square-kilometer park spans seven times the size of London’s Hyde Park and five times that of New York’s Central Park. Occupying the former Riyadh Air Base, the park dramatically expands the city’s green space.
Designed by a team including SWA, Gerber, MVVA, Buro Happold, and Setec, King Salman Park integrates environmental restoration, innovative infrastructure, and diverse programming at an unprecedented scale. The park includes over 11 square kilometers of green space and more than seven square kilometers of pedestrian pathways, interwoven with cultural, artistic, leisure, and entertainment destinations. Centrally located within the city, the park connects to seven key roadways, while a pair of tunnels, each spanning over two kilometers, run below ground level.
Through an ambitious program of terraforming, soil enhancement, and microclimate creation, the park will be home to more than one million trees across a range of typologies, supported by forest research facilities and sustainable water systems. Native plantings, autonomous transit, naturalistic water features, and extensive public amenities come together to form a model of ecological urban regeneration. King Salman Park is an urban oasis designed to elevate Riyadh’s quality of life and affirm its position as a leading global city.
The project was recognized as the Future Project winner at the 2025 RIBA Middle East Awards, and the first phase is scheduled to open in 2026.
Baton Rouge Lakes
The 275-acre Baton Rouges Lakes system is a series of six lakes in central Baton Rouge adjacent to Louisiana State University, three major parks, and a diverse mix of neighborhoods. Recognizing opportunity in crisis, a newly funded master plan provides sound ecological restoration methods that will heal a dying lake system while reconnecting the region to its ...
Pazhou South Waterfront Park
This four-hectare urban waterfront park is a pilot project in the landscape renovation of Hungpuchong River, setting a high standard for riverfront public space in Guangzhou. The new public realm aims to connect the surrounding neighborhood and transportation hub to the river, bringing people back to the water’s edge.
The park activates the waterfront a...
Eucalyptus Society Garden
SWA’s design for this park, with its collegiate social atmosphere, offers a memorable place of natural respite that functions as green infrastructure.
Eucalyptus Society Garden project is located at the intersection of three science and innovation corridor axes in Guangzhou International Innovation City, including the core axis of the University City. B...
Nickerson Gardens Playground
Originally designed in 1955 by architect Paul Revere Williams, Nickerson Gardens is a 1,066-unit apartment complex in Watts, South Los Angeles — the largest social housing project west of the Mississippi. Core to Williams’ vision was an emphasis on shared open space, but its central playground, neglected for years, fell into a state of disrepair. In collaborat...