Nanhai Citizen’s Plaza and Thousand Lantern Lake Park exemplifies the exciting and innovative opportunities for master planning and urban design in new international communities. The site is located in the newly established city of Nanhai, and consists of a commercial precinct, public parks, and civic buildings arranged around a series of lakes and waterways. The waterways act as the connecting element between the larger site, providing transportation networks that run through the entire park. The centerpiece of the park, Citizen’s Plaza on Thousand-Lantern Lake, provides an active public gathering space that transitions from day to night with unique streetscape and lighting elements. The relatively blank canvas allowed for SWA to create a master plan that will be able to grow over time and inspire and connect the city of Nanhai well into the future.
Freedom Park Master Plan
Despite Freedom Park’s rich history as a site of protest in late 20th-century Atlanta, proximity to vibrant destinations, and vast, bucolic open space, the site has suffered from indistinct identity, unclear boundaries, unsafe pedestrian crossings, low biodiversity, limited placemaking, and minimal programming. SWA’s master plan ushers a new era in ...
Gubei Gold Street
SWA was selected to conceptualize, design, and realize a rare find in bustling Shanghai—a pedestrian mall (Gold Street). The corridor occupies three city blocks, is flanked by 20-story high-rise residential towers with retail at street level and book-ended by SWA-designed parks. Creating an iconic presence and enlivening the area, the mall features plazas, fou...
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...
Bayou Greenways
While Houston does have significant park spaces and trails, the city of no zoning has historically been unable to create enough designated open spaces and the necessary connectivity between them. The key to increasing the open space network lies within the region’s floodplains. Relatively flat terrain, intense rain events, and urbanized watersheds create broad...