A gateway for China’s open-door policy, Shekou has revitalized its fragmented and hazardous coastline into a dynamic six-kilometer promenade that masterfully captures the area’s cultural and natural essence.
The promenade repurposes the disconnected former industrial waterfront into a celebrated open space system with new recreation programs and culturally enriched landscape spaces infused with Shekou’s authentic character. The redesign caters to visitors of all ages, offering amenities such as nursing rooms, shaded rest spots, and engaging playgrounds. Imaginative ‘mountains,’ undulating landforms, waterfront plazas, native gardens, and versatile trails harmoniously coexist with the existing fishing facilities. The repurposed Shekou lighthouse, now a captivating focal point of the Memorial Terrace, is embraced by a leisure terrace, an urban tidal pool, and carefully selected native plantings. Together, these elements create a unique environment that serves as a living tribute to Shekou’s past, present, and future.
While much of China’s past has been obscured by contemporary development, Shekou’s waterfront stands as a thriving mixed-use urban core that showcases the region’s rich industrial and natural heritage.
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...
Temple City Playgrounds
Ten miles east of Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, Temple City sought to upgrade its aging parks and existing playgrounds into safe and welcoming spaces for community members of all ages. SWA worked with the city to host a community engagement workshop focused on renovating two city playgrounds: Live Oak Park, the city’s largest park, span...
Martin Luther King Jr. Square Water Quality Demonstration Park
The City of Conway received local and federal grants to create a water quality demonstration park in a flood-prone, one-block area of its downtown to educate the public about Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Infrastructure (GI) methods and how they can enhance water quality. The project transformed a remediated brownfield site, ...
Yuzhu Riverfront Mixed-Use Development
Positioned along the Pearl River, Yuzhu’s landscape is shaped by the layered forces of geography, history, and industrial memory. The Yuzhu Riverfront Mixed-Use Development is organized along a north–south framework: a vibrant commercial and retail core anchors the waterfront, while the southern district is defined by ecological richness and a high-quali...