The Virgin Hotel Dallas is a boutique hotel appropriately set within the city’s design district, carrying forward Virgin’s high standards of distinctive, comfortable luxury programs and experiences for guests. SWA worked with the architecture and interior design team to propose a modern spin on an urban hotel constrained by an extremely small site. Fronting Hi-Line Drive, the hotel’s entry and streetscape, along with series of public art and artistic street furniture, serve as bold movements to attract locals. Transitions between hardscape materials help to define spaces for different programs. Trees and landscape soften the diamond pattern façade, and provide a buffer from the street. Preserved site trees not only provide shaded canopy for the outdoor coffee house, but also inherit the history and memory of the site.
The Ritz-Carlton, Suzhou
Blending Suzhou’s traditional artistry and craftsmanship with contemporary luxury, The Ritz-Carlton opened its first location in the city in early 2025 at the heart of the Suzhou Huamao Center Mixed-Use Development. At ground level, the landscape design strikes a balance between refine...
Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo
Known for mountainous tropical landscapes where the Sierra Madre range meets the Pacific, the Jalisco coastline is one of Mexico’s preeminent ecotourism destinations, home to the UNESCO-designated Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve and vast marine sanctuaries. Carefully sited for minimum ecological disturbance, the new Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo centers con...
Hotel Higashiyama
At the Northern end of Kyoto, Japan’s cultural capital, a 100-year-old elementary school sat vacant for years at one of the city’s three Edo-era entrances—in feudal times, a rest stop for weary travelers. Vacant for years, the school was transformed into a dual-purpose property, its central building functioning as a boutique hotel with sweeping views of the Hi...
Grand Mansion Hotel
The Grand Mansion Hotel sits atop a historical museum on the site of a former palace, the ruins of which have been preserved and are now an extension of the main museum exhibit, with parts that can be seen across the street. The overall design concept was to reinterpret a traditional leisure garden featuring Japanese cherry, bamboo, and maple trees, and the gr...