San Antonio’s river trail system has long stood incomplete, its northern reach at Brackenridge Park abruptly halted by a patchwork of private lands. Recognizing the waterway’s cultural significance, landowners forged an unprecedented partnership, opening sections of their properties for public benefit. The 162-acre Spirit Reach Vision Plan allows visitors to trace the city’s story from its source, illustrating how the river and the people of San Antonio have shaped each other over millennia.
A journey through time, Spirit Reach showcases stories of Paleolithic hunters, Neolithic settlers, Spanish colonists, French nuns, and 19th-century craftsmen. The historic Brackenridge Villa area features a great lawn and hillside terrace for reflection amid the historic panorama. At the University of the Incarnate Word, reoriented public spaces now embrace the river and integrate student experience. Winding paths lead to the Blue Hole, revered by Indigenous peoples as the “birthplace of creation” and recognized as the primary source of the San Antonio River. Safe connectivity is ensured through pedestrian underpasses and an elevated hike and bike path at the iconic Olmos Dam.
Throughout design, SWA engaged with Indigenous communities, archaeologists, environmentalists, and residents to ensure that — in addition to physically weaving together previously inaccessible spaces — the project accurately narrates the story of a city shaped by water.
Spirit Reach is positioned within the greater San Antonio River Vision Plan, along with Brackenridge Park and Miraflores.
Katy Trail
Katy Trail represents a remarkable resource for the residents of the Dallas Fort Worth region. This project enlivens and makes accessible right-of-way established by the storied, but later abandoned, Missouri-Kansas-Texas (better known as the “Katy”) line, and serves as a unifying element for the surrounding neighborhoods. Katy Trail provides appro...
Burlingame Town Square
SWA partnered with the City of Burlingame to transform a surface parking lot into “The Grove,” a vibrant 1-acre community gathering space envisioned as downtown Burlingame’s outdoor living room. Blending urban functionality with engaging public amenities, the design features a grid of deciduous trees, a central glass-clad fountain with a cascading waterfall, c...
Resonant Memory: One October Memorial
Inspired by the shared love of country music that brought people from all over the world together for the Route 91 Music Festival, Resonant Memory is based on the shape of an acoustic guitar. The design makes particular use of the instrument’s sound hole as a recurring motif to represent absence, honoring the lives lost on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada...
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
In the early 1970s, the National Park Service began the enormous task of creating a new national recreation area in the midst of an urban center—the San Francisco Bay Area, home to 4.5 million people at the time. Riding the wake of the environmental revolution of the late 1960s, the Park Service would need to find consensus among a wide range of constituents, ...