A decade after completing Victoria Gardens, the owner looked to refresh the project to maintain its relevancy. SWA redesigned a three-block streetscape and plaza along Monet Avenue. The focus is on the next generation of users, with a shopping environment that highlights the social landscape and blurs the lines between retail and recreation. The design scope included landscape, paving, fountains, site furnishings, and art interventions, using drought-sensitive planting, high-efficiency irrigation, and innovative stormwater treatment.
This 147-acre downtown combines the best traditions of Western American town centers with the social and planning demands of the early 21st century. Retail, office, residential, civic, and cultural uses are placed within the landscaped urban experience of a traditional main street environment. The landscape framework for Victoria Gardens is a grid of local streets and sidewalks with a town square, plazas, paseos, and parks distributed throughout the downtown district. The streetscape trees are planted in beds of native shrubs and groundcovers to enhance the garden heritage of the project.
Rancho Cucamonga, located in the Inland Empire, is expected to grow by about four million people in the next 15 years. The area has a rich history dating back to the mid-19th century. Six major trade routes passed through the area including the El Camino Real (which connected the missions by a day’s travel), Santa Inez Trail (a major trade route connecting the Colorado River to the settlements out West), and Route 66 (the major vehicular route for the mass migration westward during the dustbowl and post WWII era).
As you enter the site for Victoria Gardens, a formal Date Palm grove calls back to the region’s agrarian roots while creating an identity from the nearby I-15 freeway. The downtown area is framed by parking lots containing linear planters of Bradford Pears creating an orchard-like effect. Both North and South Main Streets are lined with London Plane trees, which have a rustic quality that celebrates the passing of seasons through their fall colors. Other arterial streets are lined with California Peppers, Eucalyptus, African Sumac, and Aristocrat Pear.
Suzhou Center
The Suzhou Center is a landmark urban space within the Suzhou Central Business District that embodies the spirit of the city of Suzhou as a gateway for intersecting old and new cultural and historic heritage. The successful combination of high-density development and ecological conservation will allow for Suzhou to transition to a garden city where state-of-th...
Rodeo 39
As larger big-box companies continue to close their brick-and-mortar stores, each leaves behind a sizable void within the communities these centers once served. Rodeo 39, seeks to break the models of traditional retail that are founded on convenience and visibility and shift the focus to community aspirations and user experience.
The 31,000-square-foot ...
Qingdao SIIC International Financial Center
Qingdao is the birthplace of Tsingtao Beer and, for over 20 years, the Tsingtao International Beer Festival was held on this site. SWA played a crucial role in preserving the community’s cultural landmark status as the land surrounding the festival site was transformed into a new urban campus and transit hub. Recently completed, the Qingdao SIIC International ...
Poly Future City
As the first phase of a large development along a new subway line in Beijing, Poly Future City suggests what’s to come. A sleek sales center features an interactive landscape with water features punctuating its pavilions, which boast WiFi, heated seating, and power outlets, all solar-powered. For this temporary building and landscape, SWA took care to invest i...