Over the past 20 plus years SWA has been working with Stanford University to reclaim the 100 year old master plan vision of Leland Stanford and Frederick Law Olmsted for the campus. This series of campus improvement projects has restored the historic axis, open spaces and landscape patterns. With Stanford Management Company, SWA designed the Sand Hill corridor to extend the road to link to the surrounding cities. The plan provides new housing and shopping to serve the University community. After Olmsted, the formal center of the university lost much of its clarity, and what had once been a rural context became more and more urban. It was only after the Loma Pieta earthquake and the appointment of David Neuman as campus architect that the university established campus-wide principles for restoring the campus. In addition to providing master planning for larger complexes and landscape architecture for specific buildings, SWA’s work has concentrated on all the pieces of a campus that help people circulate and gather: streets, pedestrian malls and spaces, bicycle routes, and wayfinding. Olmsted used plant material to create a play between formal and informal, ornamental and native. SWA uses the California-based plant palette as a backbone, while introducing something new for each project. The focus has not been on revisiting the old, but rather re-creating the original vision for the twenty-first century. As an example, Stanford’s athletic facilities were never addressed or even envisioned by Olmsted, but grew as a series of leftover spaces on the campus. SWA began a master plan that provided a framework for 22 individual projects under the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation (DAPER). Using a grid that differs from that of the rest of the campus and thus distinguishes the old from the new, SWA created a new arrival plaza for cars, a pedestrian entry, parking, and track and field venues. They also rebuilt the key north-south axis through the area, a critical link with Olmsted’s original plan.
CSULB Liberal Arts Courtyards
The programming and design of the Liberal Art Courtyards were the result of the successful landscape master plan for 322 acres, completed by SWA in 2012 and enhancing the existing campus aesthetic and experience while improving functional relationships for its students, faculty, and community. Considerations included a wealth of open spaces largely devoted to ...
Westmark School
Westmark is a private, second-through-12th-grade school focused on providing quality education to students with learning differences. The project itself has been divided into five separate phases, which will include site renovations for classrooms, courtyards, playgrounds, etc. The school provides a unique student experience that re-envisions traditional educa...
Montclair State University Student Center and Quad
SWA/Balsley collaborated with DIG Architects and Montclair State University to reimagine the campus student center,...
Stanford Toyon Hall
Toyon Hall, a significant historic building originally designed by Bakewell and Brown Architects in 1922, is a three-story structure centered around a magnificent formal courtyard with arcades and arches. The purpose of the project was to preserve, maintain and enhance the building and site. SWA scope of work included evaluation of existing site conditions and...