Inspired by the city’s rich history of aerospace research and manufacturing, Lynwood Mega-Playground brings a dynamic space exploration-themed playground to the heart of the Central Los Angeles city.
Completed in Fall 2024, the playground transforms the Northwest corner of Lynwood Park into a colorful spectacle with super-sized play features including a 22-foot-wide sphere inspired by Saturn’s rings, a 30-foot-high rocket structure, and an 86-foot “constellation walk” meandering through the site. Throughout, the design prioritizes sustainability with low-carbon concrete, engineered wood fiber play surfacing, and structures built with post-consumer recycled materials. The same priorities extend through planting design through drought-tolerant shade plants, native trees, and supportive species for birds, insects, and wildlife.
Capturing Lynwood history in striking physical form, the Mega-Playground serves as an afterschool hub for students, bringing STEM education into the outdoors. To this day, the majority Latinx city plays a crucial role in supporting space exploration technologies—an industry that dates back to the 1950s, when aerospace innovators clustered in the South Bay area.
The project is the latest in a series of transformative open space investments including the SWA-designed Ricardo Lara Park, completed in 2015, and Fernwood Avenue Park, completed in 2023.
Halperin Park
Halperin Park (previously known as Southern Gateway Park) caps Highway 35 in South Dallas directly adjacent to the Dallas Zoo and the Oak Cliff neighborhood. The park’s design effectively reconnects the neighborhood, which was cleaved by the highway’s construction many decades ago.
Recognizing the reunification’s significance, the cap park design introd...
Tulsa Riverfront Park
SWA directed conceptual studies for incorporating a landmark residential estate, a multi-family housing complex and a creek corridor into the adjacent Arkansas River waterfront of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently acquired by a local community foundation, the total 64-acre area features sweeping lawns and a historic home that provides much-needed space for the city’s ...
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...
Marina Central Park
What if we transformed one of L.A.’s least used freeways into one of the county’s largest urban parks—reconnecting a historically divided community and drastically expanding affordable housing in an underserved district?