Impactful Landscapes:
11 award-winning
SWA projects

What makes for exemplary work when your medium is landscape?  Eleven SWA projects have been singled out with awards by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 2021– two of them with high honors at the national level.

The work demonstrates how landscape, urban design and planning improvements can offer cities and communities important opportunities to leverage more value from public investment.  Well-designed outdoor amenities, like waterfronts and parks, can simultaneously address issues of restorative justice, resilient infrastructure, and climate change—some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

SWA creates beautiful and performative public realm spaces that make cities more livable and resilient.

ASLA National Award Winners

Repairing the Rift

Ricardo Lara Linear Park, Lynwood, CA
ASLA Urban Design Award of Excellence

Lynwood, California is bisected by a massive freeway corridor, which has burdened the community since its construction. Ricardo Lara Linear Park serves to remedy the negative impacts of the freeway by restoring a sense of community to the City. Lynwood is a diverse community of families, foreign-born residents, and individuals below the federal poverty level. Ricardo Lara Linear Park offers a much-needed amenity-rich destination for this park-poor community. The City of Lynwood suffered from a lack of public, open space for its residents. Ricardo Lara Linear Park serves over 26,000 residents within a half-mile of the park. Ricardo Lara Linear Park replaced five blocks of vacant lots between the freeway and a residential neighborhood. In order to leverage funds backed by California Proposition 84, the community outreach, design, and construction was all completed in under 20 months. Just over a mile in length, the multi-block scheme was envisioned to support the many aspirations of the Lynwood community. Through robust community engagement, the park was programmed with health and connectivity in mind. Ricardo Lara Linear Park offers a continuous path for walking and jogging. The park, which provides a link to a regional bike network along the Los Angeles River, serves as a critical artery for exercise and recreation. Fitness stations that support more intensive exercise programs, along with a series of play structures, a jogging path, and other active programming help facilitate healthy lifestyles. Formerly vacant lots have been planted with climate-adapted grasses, shrubs, and shade trees. Compared to the surrounding context, the park offers 30 percent more shade coverage, making the park a veritable urban oasis. With more than 300 new trees, Ricardo Lara Linear Park has dramatically increased the amount of shade coverage in the neighborhood. The verdant canopy creates a comfortable space for outdoor exercise, play, and relaxation. Census tracts in Lynwood have been identified as “food deserts” by the US Department of Agriculture. One block in the park operates as a community garden, where residents come together and grow thousands of pounds of fresh produce. Ricardo Lara Linear Park is a center for educational programming in Lynwood. The new gathering spaces in the park invite visitors of all ages, and neighborhood schools use the garden to hold community events. Do to the topography of the surrounding site, Ricardo Lara Linear Park encompasses a 24-acre catchment area. Half of the I-105 runoff is filtered by bioswales in the park that eventually recharge the water table. The systems of stormwater direction, detention, and filtration are built into a treatment train in the park. Capturing water through green infrastructure alleviates previous problems with flooding. Along the length of the park, playgrounds, shaded seating, and public artworks all serve to create social spaces for Lynwood. The park was carefully designed to serve the City’s vibrant, multigenerational population. The programs within the park accentuate the urban vitality of Lynwood. Its design draws inspiration from the surrounding neighborhood, reflecting the creativity of its dynamic residents. Ricardo Lara Linear Park creates a vibrant space for the community of Lynwood. While the challenges in this urban context are typical of disadvantaged communities, the park responds to the unique aspirations of the people it serves.
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Ying-yu Hung
Managing Principal

“Ricardo Lara Linear Park is a vibrant community park that offers vital open space and recreational amenities for an area that has suffered from urban blight for many decades. It fills a void and begins to address the uneven distribution of open spaces in Southern California’s underserved communities.”

This transformative landscape offers healing both physical and metaphorical for an underserved community fragmented by freeway infrastructure. Here, a derelict freeway-adjacent right of way has been artfully recast as a 5.25-acre, five-block linear park, with recreational amenities and gathering spaces for the approximately 26,000 people who live within a half-mile walking distance.  The park’s programming focuses on exercise, education, and play, while its bold, gestural design reinforces the neighborhood’s unique vitality.

Today, the park serves to repair the history of discriminatory development and celebrate a growing community’s vibrant future.

A People’s Plan for Freedom Park

Freedom Park, Atlanta, GA
Honor Award, Analysis and Planning

Freedom Park, extending east from downtown Atlanta, bears the scar of land cleared through seven neighborhoods for the development of a proposed highway. Today, the park provides valuable open space for thousands of residents within a rich cultural context. The park’s history of civic activism and community empowerment began with the efforts of citizen-led protests to halt proposed highway construction. Today, the legacy of those efforts lives on through Freedom Park Conservancy and aligned neighborhood park stewards. Public engagement for the Master Plan resulted in a People’s Plan for park improvements. A robust series of on-line and in-person meetings, presentations, surveys and outreach helped give voice to public priorities and shape proposed master plan projects. Freedom Park occupies a transect of land that touches on a rich history of cultural events, nationally significant historical figures, iconic public infrastructure and natural features. The Master Plan seeks to reveal this urban palimpsest to elevate the park experience. Detailed analysis of the site was grouped into five basic categories for communication with the public to help solicit informed feedback on the project and build towards aspirational improvements that will help to transform the park. The park’s design framework embeds the park’s legacy of civic action into the Master Plan. Three primary criteria — education, procession and assembly — were prioritized to help give shape to and guide the narrative of future improvements. Seven Signature Projects identified: Freedom Commons - establishing public grounds; Tribute to John Lewis – Procession and Assembly spaces focused on civic discourse through the legacy of Congressman Lewis; Freedom Park Art Program – establishing ‘gallery wings’ as part of Atlanta’s Art Park. Peace Circuit – road removal offers healthy infrastructure around the Carter Center; Freedom Park West – focused on ecological restoration and art; Freedom Park District – creating legible loops to highlight neighborhood assets; MARTA Gateway – gateway for visitors and access to transit. The park is developed around a series of design systems focusing on: Branded Gateways, Curation of Public Art, Mobility Infrastructure and Ecosystem Enhancement. The framework established allows for implementation flexibility while maintaining the principles of the plan. Over 70 projects were identified for the Master Plan. Prioritization was developed by evaluation through a series of criteria and consideration of geographic equity. Projects were then grouped into Signature Projects to focus near-term fund raising and design efforts. Lake Lewis, commemorating Congressman John Lewis, envisions an ecological oasis within the heart of the park’s north wing. The lake transforms an underutilized, low-lying lawn into a community space focused on education, reflection and engagement with nature. The MARTA Gateway leverages an existing commuter rail and bus facility to develop a new Gateway into Freedom Park. The plan envisions the establishment of a visitor’s pavilion and Park Timeline Art Wall, offering insights into the park’s history. The rolling topography associated with the west end of the site offers an opportunity to leverage adjacency to Mary Lin Elementary School. The meadow envisions an immersive landscape focused on pollinator habitats and opportunities for engagement with natural systems. At the park’s west end, ‘rooms’ for art installation animate the bucolic natural landscape and offer areas to expand the Park’s existing Art Program. Beneficial habitat landscape enhancements further reinforce the role of this immersive environment. An underutilized street is reimagined as a gateway to the King Center and a cultural event space. The plaza serves as a threshold to the Historic Fourth Ward and home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The spirit of Freedom Park is personified in the legacy of Congressman John Lewis – a place where the public can participate in an open dialogue to find Common Ground and engage in civic discourse for the betterment of our communities.
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Natalia Beard
Principal

“Freedom Park is a national treasure… Its design reflects critical timely issues: reclaiming infrastructure for urban nature, convening communities by providing a civic platform, and framing cultural-historic narratives for just and inclusive public space. We look forward to the seeing the park come to life with all its potential!”

Atlanta’s Freedom Park, a 130-acre-swath of land cleared for a proposed (and ultimately aborted) highway, was born from grass-roots protest and civil disobedience nearly thirty years ago.  Its origin story of civic action is both palpably local and nationally resonant, involving leaders such as Martin Luther King and the late Congressman John Lewis among others.  The master plan for the park’s future is informed by intense community involvement, with the ambition of repositioning the park from its presence as a proud scar into a more potent connective tissue—one that offers an equitable, culturally rich and civic-minded common ground for Atlanta and the nation.

Regional Awards: Waterfronts

Grey to Green: Enlivening an Industrial Waterfront

Nantong Riverfront Landscape Planning and Design, Nantong, China
ASLA Southern California Chapter Merit Award

SWA’s master plan resurrects this industrial site on the Yangtze River into a resilient waterfront park. Central to the approach is a redesign of the embankment, raising it to 100-year flood standards and transforming it from a hard, engineered edge to a series of natural revetments—wetland islands, sloping gardens, hydrophilic terraces, and waterfront trails—that offer a variety of experiences while also promoting resiliency. Industrial relics are preserved and reused throughout the site as a nod to the site’s history as the region’s growth engine. The plan seeks to celebrate the site’s industrial past, improve ecological performance, reconnect locals to the water, and provide greater security from increasingly common flood events so that the resulting Nantong Riverfront can be a place of great historical significance and modern-day enjoyment.

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A New Line in the Sand

Santa Monica North Beach Trail, Santa Monica, CA
ASLA Southern California Chapter Merit Award

While Santa Monica’s iconic beaches draw thousands of tourists per year, the trails that run through them are a big attraction for locals, for whom they provide exercise, relaxation, and a more inviting commute than Los Angeles County’s congested freeways. Yet the trails were also run-down and congested, with increasing pedestrian-cyclist conflicts. This beachfront improvement prioritizes safety, separating lanes out for pedestrians, while also using design to reveal the city’s history and ecology. The nearly mile-long trail borders residences, bike rental sheds, beach cafés, and parking areas has been animated with enhanced paving that doubles as wayfinding and place-making.  Intersections, formerly pedestrian and bike-traffic “choke points,” are now marked by distinctive artwork that is visible upon approach by users at all speeds. Each crossing serves not only as a safety feature, but also as a destination and meeting place, and with pattern design expressive of the region’s native species.

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Reclaiming an Industrialized Waterfront

Nelson Mandela Park Master Plan, Rotterdam, Netherlands
ASLA New York Chapter Merit Award

SWA/Balsley’s Master Plan for Nelson Mandela Park envisions a new, much-needed central neighborhood and civic open space in Rotterdam’s South Maashaven district, home to a growing and increasingly diverse population. The planning process engaged the community and embraced a holistic approach to waterfront site, celebrating its maritime history and reclaiming land lost to the sea.  A naturalized shoreline, marsh habitats, multi-purpose lawns, tree groves, and sculpted knolls and overlooks are introduced to offer natural relief– a counterpoint to the otherwise industrialized setting. The park’s edge will align with the new levee promenade along the adjacent, prominent Pretorialaan commercial boulevard creating a welcoming gateway for the regular stream of everyday users.  Access to public transit invites diverse groups from far and wide to gather and engage.

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Regional Awards: Parks

A Livability Magnet

Dongguan Central Park, Dongguan, China
ASLA Northern California Chapter Award of Merit – Analysis and Planning

This new 32-hectare park is envisioned as a “livability magnet” in the ongoing renewal of the Dongguan’s Central Business District, intended to attract new talent to the reputed “world’s factory.” SWA conceptualized the park as a living system, inspired by the durable, growing roots of a banyan tree. The design leverages thoughtful strategies for soil, water, and planting to help establish habitat, while drawing on local materials to reinforce cultural identity and sense of place. Setting a new standard for urban outdoor experience, Dongguan Central Park Area will offer an adaptable, all-day social and recreational attraction for both long-established residents and new workers to its thriving industrial base.

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Green Infrastructure + Public Realm Placemaking

Markham Square, Conway, AR
ASLA Texas Chapter Merit Award

This ambitious, holistic plan deploys green infrastructure techniques in creating an unparalleled public space, transforming a brownfield site plagued by flooding into a lively stormwater park and cultural asset for the city.  Markham Square embraces green infrastructure and play, biodiversity and community, stormwater management and recreation; all are inseparable and complementary aspects of the built environment.  This approach enables access to EPA funding though the full aspirational vision will require additional fundraising. This conscious decision by the City of Conway and the landscape architecture team stems from a shared conviction that 21st century green infrastructure projects offer more than just ecological function; public projects that invite human experiences and encourage appreciation for natural systems are essential to fostering a culture of care in which local landscapes are collectively valued and stewarded.

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Raising the Green Bar

Panyu Central Park, Guangzhou, China
ASLA Southern California Chapter Merit Award

Panyu Central Park is the new hub of Guangzhou’s booming central business district, setting a new standard for public open space.  SWA’s design offers a memorable place of natural respite that also functions as green infrastructure. The park’s sculped terrain, rain gardens, trails and gathering spaces offer visitors a variety of passive and programmed experiences, with design also facilitating rain water collection, reuse and ground water recharge.

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Regional Awards: Residential

Everyone Deserves a Garden

Ping Yuen Public Housing Rehabilitation, San Francisco, CA
ASLA Northern California Chapter Merit Award

SWA’s landscape renovation of Ping Yuen, the first public housing development in San Francisco’s Chinatown, replaces a fortress-like setting with plantings and outdoor improvements that invite residents to enjoy a breath of fresh air.  The redesign’s planting palette is a sophisticated combination of cultural and local texture, drawing upon California native plants and traditional Asian garden species.  Spurred by the Chinatown Community Development Center, improvements enable longed-for access to private open space and its associated health benefits to the development’s approximately 434 lower-income families.

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Restorative Nature

SunCity Tachikawa Showa Kinen Koen, Tachikawa, Japan
ASLA Northern California California Chapter Award of Excellence

This lush landscape for a premium continuum-of-care retirement community aims to leverage the healing qualities of the natural environment, and takes its name and design cues from the adjacent Koen National Park. Here, residents of the 501 independent living units and 91 nursing units are surrounded by nature. Ambulatory residents and their guests can stroll in the large garden, and all have visual access to the central garden which features a water cascade, a reflecting pool, and an enclosed bridge connecting the major wings of the first-floor public areas. A small, formal healing garden provides seating areas shaded by vine-covered pergolas, offering peaceful respite for elders and their families.

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Regional Awards: Communication

Communicating Coastal Edge Strategies

Resilience Cards
ASLA Southern California Chapter Communication Award

These 10 double-sided, playing-cards feature infographics on coastal edge treatments, illustrating the nuances of different typological strategies that represent current best practices in resilience planning and design. Easily transferrable in both digital and printed media, the cards explain key considerations that differentiate various approaches — including each technique’s pros and cons, cost considerations, materiality, effectiveness, spatial distribution, and an overall resiliency score — in a readily understandable graphic format. Each features an axonometric drawing of the particular typology on the front, depicting either an object- or landscape-based strategy, as well as key metrics.

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