Portsmouth Square is the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown: the main civic park for all community festivals and events as well as an important day-to-day outdoor living room for the community. Centered in the densest community in the United States west of the Hudson River, the park plays a critical role in the health and well-being of the local residents, over 40 percent of whom live in single-occupancy units.
Since being established as Yerba Buena’s first public space in 1833, Portsmouth Square has undergone many iterations, culminating with the building of an underground parking garage with an RHAA-designed park on top in the 1970s. SWA led a year-long, community-participatory planning process to envision this park for the next generation structured around five large public workshops, working with approximately 20 community groups and 30 key stakeholders, and coordination with six city agencies. The design takes into account stormwater design, solar power, high albedo surfaces, urban forestry, all over an existing structure.
Polliwog Park
Originally built in the 1970s, Polliwog Park is a high-use neighborhood amenity that provides active recreation and play facilities to local families. The original playground was replaced in 2003 but required a full update in 2020 to account for routine flooding. SWA’s design allows the park to remain an active community feature year-round.
In addition ...
Riverside Park South
Located on the West Side of Manhattan on the scenic Hudson River shoreline, Riverside Park South is a massive, multiphase project of sweeping ambition and historic scope. Combining new green space, new infrastructure, and the renovation of landmark industrial buildings, the plan – originally devised by Thomas Balsley Associates in 1991 – is an extension of Fre...
Terry Hershey Park
The park design includes a one-mile hike and bike trail system, a pedestrian underpass linking the park to an existing trail system, bridges over the creek, and automobile parking. Gabions were used as an environmentally friendly means of slope retention in a floodway and as a tool for creating places for people to enjoy the wooded environment. Sinuous banks a...
Marina Central Park
What if we transformed one of L.A.’s least used freeways into one of the county’s largest urban parks—reconnecting a historically divided community and drastically expanding affordable housing in an underserved district?