After nearly 15 years of being closed to the public, Bicentennial Park will soon provide a lively setting for neighborhood recreation. The City of Hawthorne has been home to many creative people throughout history: a legendary athlete and Olympian, Jim Thorpe; a world-famous movie star, Marilyn Monroe; and one of the most beloved American rock bands, The Beach Boys. The City is also at the center of the United States aerospace industry, home to Northrop Grumman and SpaceX. Hawthorne High School provides outstanding programs in engineering and manufacturing, promising a future generation of leading scientists. Yet today, more than 20 percent of the total population of Hawthorne lives below the poverty line and the community is victim to some of the worst environmental conditions in Southern California. In collaboration with The Trust for Public Land, the local community has worked for many years to redevelop the little-used and neglected Bicentennial Park property into a safe, welcoming recreational resource for city residents. Working closely with project stakeholders, SWA designers have developed a design for the park renovation inspired by Hawthorne s history and heritage. Focusing on the playground as a main feature of the park, SWA proposed the concept “Where Creative Minds Grow.” The park’s design concept features the history of aviation as a playful element, exposing generations young and old to the community’s unique history.
Park 101
The ambitious Park 101 aims to cover part of downtown Los Angeles’ 101 Freeway with a multi-purpose park that will include playgrounds, seating, festival areas, and a plaza. The approximately four-block cap park will reconnect the two sections of Downtown that have long been separated by the freeway, greatly enhancing the currently noisy, with much-needed shad...
Ningbo East New Town Civic Plaza
As an extension of the Ningbo East New Town Government Center, this civic plaza extends the geometry and ecology of SWA’s past work in the city. A central civic axis runs from the government buildings to the Dongqian Lake edge, providing a large, flexible gathering/event space adjacent to an expansive lawn as well as sweeping views of the water. Per city plann...
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...
Eucalyptus Society Garden
SWA’s design for this park, with its collegiate social atmosphere, offers a memorable place of natural respite that functions as green infrastructure.
Eucalyptus Society Garden project is located at the intersection of three science and innovation corridor axes in Guangzhou International Innovation City, including the core axis of the University City. B...