Providing a home base for the firm’s Asian portfolio
Following Co-CEO David Thompson’s time in the Dallas office, he founded SWA Shanghai in 2011 to better serve the firm’s growing portfolio of work in China. The office, now led by Jack Wu, has delivered impactful, public space-defining urban districts, such as OCT Bao’an Cultural Park–a calling card of the Shenzhen waterfront. Many projects in the portfolio reimagine post-industrial landscapes, transforming former steel mills and industrial waterfronts and incorporating sponge city concepts into large-scale ecological restorations.
Located in THE LOFT, a renovated apparel factory in Shanghai’s historic French Concession, the studio boasts an Atelier vibe where sketches, models, and material samples transform from workshop products to office artwork.
The Shanghai studio has become an important part of the Chinese landscape architecture community, earning a reputation as an industry leader. The studio has been instrumental in creating the Landscape Forum, a group of local and international firms that sponsor topical forums to address major industry issues. In 2019, the office hosted the Student Summer Programing, an incubator for research and development on resilient cities across Asia, and often participates in local exhibitions and publications.