“The Bagby Street Improvement in Downtown Houston sets the tone for 21st century multimodal infrastructure while stitching together civic uses along a beautiful corridor for people of all ages and abilities. It is transformational, to say the least.”
– Luis Guarjardo, AICP and the APA Houston Board of Directors 2022-2023
Inspired by the success of Avenida Houston, on the east side of the city’s Downtown, Mayor Sylvester Turner wished to create something equally iconic on the west side. Bagby Street connects civic uses (including City Hall and its annex), cultural uses (Hobby Center, Bayou Place, and others) and parks (including Sam Houston Park and Tranquility Park).
The project team proposed an urban trail that would establish a safe, off-street bike path through downtown, connect to major destinations, and help to stitch together the region’s emerging bike network. Connections include on-street facilities as well as links to the trails of Bayou Greenways via Buffalo Bayou. The comfortable, off-street urban trail provides a safe and pleasant environment for pedestrians and cyclists moving along the corridor.
Prior to interventions, Bagby Street was underperforming: characterized by barricaded sidewalks and crumbling wheelchair ramps. Now, this urban trail provides a safe, off-street bike path through downtown, connecting to civic and cultural uses as well as parks, and serving as a gateway into downtown from the city’s west side. In 2022, the project was honored with a Transportation Planning Gold Award by the American Planning Association’s Texas Chapter, for the Houston Section.
Gubei Gold Street
SWA was selected to conceptualize, design, and realize a rare find in bustling Shanghai—a pedestrian mall (Gold Street). The corridor occupies three city blocks, is flanked by 20-story high-rise residential towers with retail at street level and book-ended by SWA-designed parks. Creating an iconic presence and enlivening the area, the mall features plazas, fou...
Milton Street Park
Milton Street Park is a 1.2-acre linear urban park alongside the Ballona Creek Bike Trail in Los Angeles, California. The plan incorporates numerous green-design elements, including the use of recycled materials, native planting, flow-through planters and treatment alongside the 1,000-foot-long, 45-foot-wide stretch of land. A variety of special elements such...
Santa Monica North Beach Trail Improvements
While the beaches of Santa Monica are arguably one of the most iconic landscapes in Southern California, the trails running through them are less well known. Among those is the Marvin Braude Bike Trail, which runs from Mexico to Oregon and is commonly referred to as “The Strand” by locals. In recent years, The Strand bike trail had become congested and dangero...
Heights Mercantile
Heights Mercantile is a mixed-use space centered on a bike trail in the heart of the beloved Houston Heights neighborhood. It transformed vacant office and warehouse sites into a community-anchoring redevelopment featuring 16-first-to-market specialty brands and four chef-driven restaurant concepts. As the development’s backbone, adjacent hike and bike trails ...