SWA directed conceptual studies for incorporating a landmark residential estate, a multi-family housing complex and a creek corridor into the adjacent Arkansas River waterfront of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently acquired by a local community foundation, the total 64-acre area features sweeping lawns and a historic home that provides much-needed space for the city’s popular River Parks system.
The design concepts explore options for realigning, submerging, and bridging over Riverside Drive in order to connect adjacent neighborhoods to trails and open space along the river, including the recently constructed and SWA-designed 41st Street Plaza and refurbished trails.
Waterside activities will include a whitewater-kayaking venue, launching for other small boats, and pedestrian plazas. A children’s discovery museum will create a regional attraction within the estate area, with pavilions clustered within the wooded perimeter to maintain the signature open lawn area. Existing multi-family housing will be intensified, with recommendations for additional property acquisition to extend trail connections to other city neighborhoods and destinations.
Alief Park and Neighborhood Center
Located in West Houston, the Alief Neighborhood Center and Park serves one of the city’s most diverse communities. Over 90 languages are spoken in Alief, which is home to first-generation immigrants from across the world and refugees from as far away as Vietnam and close as Louisiana—especially in the wake up Hurricane Katrina, when many families made a ...
Panyu Central Park
Panyu Central Park breaks the boundary of the traditional gated community and promotes sharing of open space among residents and visitors. This neighborhood development is the hub for a dense urban community, raising its visibility and value and setting a high standard for open space in the area. The park provides welcoming activity space for all ages with its...
Dallas Arboretum: A Tasteful Place
A year-round “food oasis” awaits visitors at A Tasteful Place, a new edible/display garden within the Dallas Arboretum. A continuation of SWA’s Arboretum work (which includes Red Maple Rill and the Children’s Garden), A Tasteful Place provides visual and hands-on education about plants and herbs that can be used in visitors’ daily cooking and explored in...
Palisades Park
Santa Monica’s famous pier area draws visitors who often disregard pavement boundaries and compact the landscape soil. Palisades Park, adjacent to the iconic pier, is a particularly active site for cyclists and tourists that has long been in need of a planting strategy to discourage pedestrian overflow into the landscape. SWA’s defensive planting strategy tack...