Originally designed in 1955 by architect Paul Revere Williams, Nickerson Gardens is a 1,066-unit apartment complex in Watts, South Los Angeles — the largest social housing project west of the Mississippi. Core to Williams’ vision was an emphasis on shared open space, but its central playground, neglected for years, fell into a state of disrepair. In collaboration with NBBJ and the musician Flea, SWA’s Los Angeles studio provided pro-bono advisory services to design the landscape for an entirely refurbished playground — including slides, swings, misting features, shade structures, and an adult exercise facility. Complete with water-efficient plantings, the playground brings 17,656 square feet of vibrant new community space to the heart of Nickerson Gardens, designed with durability, heat resistance, and multi-generational use in mind.
Honggang Park
Nestled between two hills in Shenzhen’s Luohu District, Honggang Park is a green corridor bringing over 80 acres of open space through the city’s dense fabric. Celebrating the site’s stark topography, SWA’s design carefully threads hiking trails along the slopes to minimize ecological disturbance, with stairs providing shortcuts along switchbacks. Altogether, ...
Guangzhou Guanggang Steel Park
Along the Pearl River, this stretch of Guangzhou’s industrial belt produced steel for nearly seven decades. Following the factory’s decommissioning in 2013, the site has been transformed into a carbon-negative landscape that weaves its industrial past into every design decision. Guangzhou Steel Park reshapes a legacy of environmental degradation into a m...
Hunter's Point South Waterfront Park
Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park was envisioned as an international model of urban ecology and a world laboratory for innovative sustainable thinking. The project is a collaboration between Thomas Balsley Associates and WEISS/MANFREDI for the open space and park design with ARUP as the prime consultant and infrastructure designer.
What was once a ba...
Stanford University Terman Park
The removal of an existing building adjacent to the center of Stanford’s campus provided a unique opportunity to fashion an interim park space. The project emphasizes reuse and seeks to utilize salvaged materials as well as the existing grading and fountain as key features of the park. As a multifunctional performance and recreational space, the project ...