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?
Marina Central Park, a vision co-developed by SWA and the nonprofit Streets for All, proposes a transformation of three miles of the unfinished Marina Freeway (CA-90) into a 128-acre linear park including almost 4,000 new units of affordable housing, a network of new multimodal trails, dedicated lanes for a future Bus Rapid Transit line between Lincoln and Sepulveda Boulevard, expanded retail frontage, and enhanced access to the Ballona Creek Trail and Ecological Reserve.
Altogether, the vision addresses a suite of problems shared by Angelenos citywide: declining air quality, stormwater flooding, a critical housing shortage, and Black and Brown neighborhoods rent apart by 1960s-era highway infrastructure fueled by racist planning policies—reimagining the corridor as a model for sustainability, walkability, and improved quality of life.
Learn more:
Read about it in Urbanize LA.
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...
Changchun Tractor Factory Renovation
Once-industrial site re-imagined as a commercial complex with eye-catching public spaces.
For this site, which was once an industrial tractor factory that epitomized Changchun’s thriving industrial past, SWA provided conceptual design through implementation to transform the former of Changchun Tractor Factory into an eye-catching public realm that fulfi...
Sanshan Hillside Park
The Pearl River Delta has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past four decades, evolving from farmland to a global manufacturing and technology powerhouse. Amid the frenetic pulse of this sprawling megalopolis of 86 million people, Sanshan Hillside Park stands as a mountaintop oasis.
Envisioned as New Town’s Central Park, the design embr...
Perk Park
Originally completed in 1972, this vestige of IM Pei’s urban renewal plan was built when the street was seen as a menace and parks turned inward. Rolling berms surrounded the edges and the sunken middle areas were filled with concrete retaining walls. After years of decline, Thomas Balsley Associates’ designed a plan to reunite the community with its park. The...