Advancing future-ready landscapes that knit infrastructure into the public realm
SWA Los Angeles is a decisively community-oriented studio founded in 2005 by Managing Principal Ying-yu Hung alongside Co-CEO Gerdo Aquino, LA-based teams have led some of the firm’s most innovative infrastructure and social impact projects across the U.S. and internationally, ranging in size and typology from large-scale planning studies—like Marina Central Park, a groundbreaking proposal to transform a 3-mile segment of the underutilized Marina Freeway into a linear park with multimodal transit and affordable housing—to smaller-scale projects, including an extensive series of recently completed greenways, stormwater parks, and playgrounds in disinvested communities across L.A. County. Several of the studio’s projects, including Ricardo Lara Park and Culver Steps, have drawn widespread acclaim for seamlessly integrating social and ecological infrastructure while maintaining a rigorous approach to landscape performance, detailing, and programming for active use. The office works extensively across the U.S. and internationally, primarily in China and the Middle East, bringing the same systems-oriented mindset to bear on projects of all scales and contexts.
Located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles in the historic Fine Arts Building, the studio captures the spirit of SoCal in both its work and culture—vibrant, colorful, and socially active. The L.A. team has also been particularly involved in the firmwide RISE (Respect, Inclusion, and Social Equity) Committee since its founding in 2020, regularly organizing academic partnerships, events, tours, and volunteer work across the city.