Poly International Plaza is an innovative office, retail, and exhibition center development located in the Guangzhou trade district. Sited along the Pearl River and adjacent to historic Pazhou Temple Park, the project presents a precedent toward integrating development with its site and context, embracing the place of garden and sustainability in the society’s rapid move toward modernization. The site plan forms a series of gardens and plazas. A major North-South promenade along the west boundary provides connections to an offsite hotel development and convention hall and a diagonal spatial arrangement enhances visual connections to the Pagoda Park south of the site and the Pearl River north of the site. The complete design seeks to integrate the southern Chinese landscape traditions with a modern sensitivity toward local context, climate, flora and SOM’s modern architecture. Tall, continuous tree canopies in combination with water features help to moderate the climate in providing shade and capturing cooling breezes for exterior spaces.
North Texas Corporate Campus
Facing arduous competition in the effort to attract and retain top employee talent, companies are seeking ways to distinguish themselves through the design of their workplaces. Reimaging and reinvigorating an outdated campus into a stimulating and rewarding work environment with quality amenities was the goal. To undertake the challenge of this campus transfo...
Symantec Chengdu
SWA provided landscape design for Symantec’s research and development complex. The site was previously inactive and banal until SWA’s design reinvigorated the area, linking the building program and connecting the site to the larger city. The landscape design produces a “brocade,” weaving together the building and site program, and offering an oasis amid the de...
Akasaka K Tower
This urban redevelopment project is on the site of the former headquarters of Kajima Construction Corporation. Mid-rise twin towers were replaced with 150-meter-tall high-rise with office space and high-end apartments on the upper floors. SWA designed an entry plaza for the building, while providing much-needed green space in this dense neighborhood in the mid...
Weyerhaeuser Corporate Headquarters
Founding SWA partner Peter Walker collaborated with architects SOM on site analysis, planning, and landscape development for this hugely influential corporate headquarters, which remains notable for its unique integration of landscape, architecture, and environmental stewardship. The 425-acre site was chosen by the design team with George Weyerhaeuser for its ...