The vision for Tianjin Eco-City is of a socially harmonious, environmentally friendly, and resource-efficient model for sustainable development. The new city encompasses two flagship civic projects: the National Maritime Museum and the surrounding South Bay Park. South Bay Park is the project’s central green infrastructure, but also provides a significant outdoor amenity for the National Maritime Museum. It provides green, healthy, vibrant environments for the local community’s daily use as well as establishing a regional tourism destination.
The National Maritime Museum is the centerpiece of the park. The concept for the museum takes its cue from the surrounding ocean, and represents a school of fish coursing through current. Its dynamic form and scale dominate the setting, and will be the focal point for visitors to the park. To connect the park with the museum as one cohesive, connected environment, a concept was adopted that borrows from the relationship between an organism and its environment, in which over time, an organism adapts in response to its surroundings. The park carries this relationship with the museum forward by expanding upon its reference to the sea and, through a common design language, creates a dialogue between architecture and the landscape.
Houston’s Gateway Art Bridges : I-59/69 Beautification
As a city dominated by freeway infrastructure, Houston will be reconstructing portions of its iconic freeways in the near future. This created an opportunity for SWA to reclaim the Houston Interstate experience with a temporary art installation that provides a bold pop of color celebrating Houston’s diversity at eight key threshold bridges along the I-59/69 co...
Greening Houston’s Freeways
As Houston’s Downtown has developed and expanded over many decades, public green space has been increasingly constrained by several interstate routes: primarily I-59, -45, and -69. These thoroughfares, while essential for commuters, have left little room for workers and nearby residents to enjoy unimpeded access to their locale’s adjacent trailways and bayous,...
Milton Street Park
Milton Street Park is a 1.2-acre linear urban park alongside the Ballona Creek Bike Trail in Los Angeles, California. The plan incorporates numerous green-design elements, including the use of recycled materials, native planting, flow-through planters and treatment alongside the 1,000-foot-long, 45-foot-wide stretch of land. A variety of special elements such...
Shunde New City
The Pearl River Delta is the second largest bird migration delta and estuary in Southeast Asia. Preserving and restoring bird and wildlife corridors while also providing regional connectivity, transportation, and development options is at the pinnacle of today’s development challenges. In the Shunde New City Plan, urban development and nature are integra...