United Daily News Plaza is located on one of the busiest streets of Taipei – Chong Shao East Road. It is a 6,000-square-meter mixed-use project with two building sites. Site A consists of a mixed-use building with a bank and cafe on the first floor, and service apartments on all the floors above. Site B is a residential building. The main design concept creates an urban forest, unifying the two sites to give a distinctive image within an extremely busy urban context. The “forest” is created with newly planted street trees at the perimeter of the site, especially as an allee along Chong Shao East Road. To ensure the trees grow to a sufficient size, SWA worked with the architect to reserve 1.5 meter soil depth on top of the parking structure. Permeable paving, a subsurface drainage system were are also introduced to optimize growth. Densely planted cherry trees in the reading garden further impart the feeling of being surrounded by forest; chinaberry trees interspersed in the main plaza provide shade in the summer and a change of character throughout the seasons.
Since the owner is one of the earliest newspaper groups in Taiwan, the landscape design is also inspired by the traditional printing press system. The traditional Chinese printing press consist of square blocks, this inspiration has been transformed into a modular layout of the site, and also carried through in the understory planting palette, mist fountain, and bench design.
Ambleside Mixed-Use Development
Landscape improvements for this new mixed-use development integrate and enhance the streetscape improvement measures the city of West Vancouver is currently implementing, providing a vibrant and pedestrian friendly landscape along the entire perimeter of the site. The landscape design for the 1300 Block, Marine Drive South at Ambleside Village Centre contribut...
Heights Mercantile
In an era of one-click purchases and next-day deliveries, urban residents yearn for the once-prevalent ambiance of a lively urban environment. Heights Mercantile offers Houston an antidote. Revitalizing two acres in the heart of Houston’s historic Heights neighborhood, this low-rise, mixed-use development preserves the area’s charm while providing ...
Riyadh East Sub-Center
SWA provided comprehensive planning for a new 300-hectare commercial, mixed-use center in northeast Riyadh abutting the KKI Airport. This area is part of an urban management framework being developed to guide the future growth of the city. SWA developed a plan and implementation strategy to establish an urban center comprising residential neighborhoods, corpor...
Suzhou Center
The Suzhou Center is a landmark urban space within the Suzhou Central Business District that embodies the spirit of the city of Suzhou as a gateway for intersecting old and new cultural and historic heritage. The successful combination of high-density development and ecological conservation will allow for Suzhou to transition to a garden city where state-of-th...