SWA was retained to design the landscape of this mixed-use development collaboratively with Zaha Hadid Architects. It contains performing arts, hotel, residential, office and retail functions. Located adjacent to SWA’s Nanjing Youth Olympic Park, the design strives to merge architecture, the park landscape, and people at this iconic focal point. Landforms and landscape act as extensions of the buildings into the park landscape while providing a simple canvas for the dramatic architecture. The performing arts function spills outdoors into a small amphitheater overlooking a sunken retail courtyard. Lighting creates vibrancy in order to reinforce the Youth Cultural Centre as a public destination at night. Sustainable efforts included material re-use, water harvesting, and water quality and stormwater management initiatives. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat honored this complex with three design awards in 2018.
Atherton Civic Center and Library
The vision for the Atherton Civic Center landscape is a community space set in a peaceful garden, designed to enhance the local ecology and mitigate the urban impacts of the new development. The landscape design integrates new architecture into the wider Atherton community through a strolling garden approach to site circulation. The planting areas are comprise...
Disney World Master Plan
Special issues in the computer-aided land analysis included depth to watertable, soils and organic mucks, and cypress groves. The analysis summary provided the basis for master planning a mixed-use community with extensive greenway conservation lands, resort development, entertainment facilities, a business park, and a residential community.
Suzhou Center
The Suzhou Center is a landmark urban space within the Suzhou Central Business District that embodies the spirit of the city of Suzhou as a gateway for intersecting old and new cultural and historic heritage. The successful combination of high-density development and ecological conservation will allow for Suzhou to transition to a garden city where state-of-th...
Alief Park and Neighborhood Center
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Houston was compelled to reassess community preparedness. The 37-acre Alief Center, situated in one of the city’s most culturally diverse areas, addresses longstanding issues of disinvestment and environmental injustice while fostering physical and social resilience.
Elevated above the 100-year floodplain, the...