SWA directed conceptual studies for incorporating a landmark residential estate, a multi-family housing complex and a creek corridor into the adjacent Arkansas River waterfront of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently acquired by a local community foundation, the total 64-acre area features sweeping lawns and a historic home that provides much-needed space for the city’s popular River Parks system.
The design concepts explore options for realigning, submerging, and bridging over Riverside Drive in order to connect adjacent neighborhoods to trails and open space along the river, including the recently constructed and SWA-designed 41st Street Plaza and refurbished trails.
Waterside activities will include a whitewater-kayaking venue, launching for other small boats, and pedestrian plazas. A children’s discovery museum will create a regional attraction within the estate area, with pavilions clustered within the wooded perimeter to maintain the signature open lawn area. Existing multi-family housing will be intensified, with recommendations for additional property acquisition to extend trail connections to other city neighborhoods and destinations.
Palisades Park
Santa Monica’s famous pier area draws visitors who often disregard pavement boundaries and compact the landscape soil. Palisades Park, adjacent to the iconic pier, is a particularly active site for cyclists and tourists that has long been in need of a planting strategy to discourage pedestrian overflow into the landscape. SWA’s defensive planting strategy tack...
Moji Mountain Park Master Plan
Moji Mountain, one of the most distinctive symbols of Yichang, now boasts the city’s largest public open space. The 120-hectare park is located along the banks of the Yangtze River, and has a rich historical connection to both the river and the city. De-forested in the past for agricultural uses, the mountain’s slopes have been replanted and now support a new ...
Perk Park
Originally completed in 1972, this vestige of IM Pei’s urban renewal plan was built when the street was seen as a menace and parks turned inward. Rolling berms surrounded the edges and the sunken middle areas were filled with concrete retaining walls. After years of decline, Thomas Balsley Associates’ designed a plan to reunite the community with its park. The...
Shanghai EXPO UBPA (Urban Best Practice Area)
Shanghai EXPO’s Urban Best Practice Area surrounds the Plein Air Museum Park, which chronicles the unique and rich history of the site through objects of art, artifacts, and architecture. The landscape component of the museum park is expressed physically in the form of a Central Park: a gathering space and activity center for the community. The landscape was a...