With the coming expansion and realignment of the highways around Downtown Houston, SWA identified the opportunity to enact a bold vision: a multi-use branded connectivity system that will leverage the immense reconstruction investment. SWA’s concept creates a continuous pedestrian loop over, under, and around the downtown highway system, thus redirecting the unpleasant experience and appearance of the freeway infrastructure into unique pedestrian-scale experiences while creating meaningful exchanges among neighborhoods and urban districts. The loop re-imagines the civic commons by artfully negotiating topography, land use, and natural resources. The renderings aim to demonstrate strategic investment zones that have the potential to initiate development of the Houston Green Loop. These visuals successfully served as a tool for communicating possibilities and investment value to the mayor’s stakeholder committee, which is comprised of prominent city officials, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists. As one example of a sustainable gesture along the Loop, at Frostown Crossing, the design proposal creates an outdoor amenity along a detention pond that is activated by the restoration of a historic bridge.
Culver City Medians
The Culver Boulevard Median Park has worn many hats over time, from railroad right-of-way to freeway on-ramp to bike and pedestrian conveyance. Today the Median Park is being asked to do more. Introducing below-grade stormwater management, SWA is working with the community to finesse an intricate network of stormwater, biodiversity, traffic, and program. The p...
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...
Buffalo Bayou Smith to Travis Streets Trail Segment
This effort in Downtown Houston extends the Buffalo Bayou trail system eastward with the Smith to Travis Trail, connecting two historically significant sites: Sesquicentennial Park and Allen’s Landing, where the city was founded. It is a technically challenging segment located twenty feet below street level that traverses under multiple roadway bridges crossin...
Envision Willowick
The Cities of Garden Grove and Santa Ana are developing a “vision” for redevelopment of the Willowick Golf Course site. This process explored conceptual land use options that are formed by community and stakeholder collaboration and input. The Visioning is intended to be used to guide the preparation of development plans for Willowick. The visioning...