SWA was awarded 2nd place in the 2016 Olympic Park Competition in Rio de Janeiro for their master plan and landscape architecture proposal. The Olympics will be located on a 118-hectare site in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. The underlying concept of ‘Embrace’ weaves through the design in a grand planning gesture, which both defines the Olympic Games and provides a lasting identity for the City of Rio de Janeiro. More specifically, the plan encompasses the ideas of ‘Games’, ‘Transition’, and ‘Legacy’ as an integrated plan that grows and matures over time, and is guided by strategies of urban design, sustainability and accessibility. The Olympic infrastructure, designed for both the present and the future, creates an exuberant Games experience which easily adapts and transitions into a sustainable urban community. The site is woven together by public space, and includes an innovative greenway system, restored wetland habitat, and urban park intended to serve the city for generations to come.
Bayfront Parks Master Plan
Jersey City is bounded by the scenic Hudson to the east, lined with high rises and waterfront parks offering views of Manhattan, and the often-overlooked Hackensack to the west, featuring wetlands, industry, and degraded post-industrial sites. The Bayfront Redevelopment Master Plan aims to transform a formerly contaminated 100-acre site on the Hackensack River...
Regus Crest Grand
The Regus Crest Grand course is a private membership course designed for tournament play with a single story clubhouse. The clubhouse is sited to maximize views of the course and its surrounding hills. The heavily forested site is preserved and is enhanced and supplemented with new landscape. Water features are used to accentuate the hills beyond the course wh...
Golden Shoal Riverfront Park
Located along Chongqing’s Jialing River, this new linear public park offered unique challenges: a 30-meter annual river fluctuation, steep topography, and low-impact maintenance of a continuous riparian corridor. Adjacent new urban development, with attendant needs for green space, called for a flexible and resilient approach to the park’s landscape and infras...
Hengqin Island
Hengqin Island, located in Zhuhai, China, is embedded within a unique and beautiful landscape, and is currently being developed for urban growth throughout the region. Taking cues from the surrounding site, SWA’s master plan intends to capture the essence of the place, and pay homage to its most fundamental landscape elements: the sea, valley, and mountains. S...