The University of Houston Law Center, established in 1947, has earned national recognition, with three of its programs ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News and World Report. Despite these academic accolades, the original Law Center building faced significant challenges due to its location and design. Situated in Houston’s low-lying coastal prairie ecoregion, the partially underground structure was particularly vulnerable to frequent flooding and water damage.
To address these issues, SWA developed a landscape solution that not only resolves the site’s practical challenges but also enhances the student experience, promotes sustainability, and supports future campus growth. The landscape design, created for the new LEED Silver-certified building, extends the modern architectural aesthetic into the surrounding outdoor spaces while focusing on improving student life.
A key project goal was to seamlessly integrate the new Law Center into the broader campus and lay a foundation for future development. To mitigate flood risks, the design elevated the building footprint above the floodplain. The surrounding landscape was contoured to channel stormwater into native vegetation and an on-site detention meadow, creating a natural stormwater management system. Additionally, the preservation of the campus’s iconic oak trees was a central design feature.
The landscape plan seamlessly extends indoor gathering spaces into the outdoors, offering diverse environments for student and faculty activities. These areas, designed with native plants and strategic planting arrangements, create immersive experiences that encourage ecological awareness and interaction with nature.
By integrating hardscape elements, native plants, and stormwater management strategies, the landscape design supports a wide variety of activities while promoting sustainability. It enhances campus life aesthetically and functionally, with the detention basin serving both practical and visual purposes.
Stanford West Apartments
SWA placed a special emphasis on maintaining the riparian corridor with native planting, using consideration when dealing with the archaeologically sensitive areas of the site, as well as existing recreation trails and landscape amenities such as parks and play areas. The internal street grid and architectural and landscape elements are designed to recall the ...
Foothill Community College
SWA’s design for Foothill College is an exemplary model of site, building, and landscape harmony. The 100-acre campus bridges two hilltops, with parking and roadways relegated to the surrounding valleys. Buildings and landscape together form a series of courts and terraces connected by a continuous campus greenway. Overhanging wood eaves of the low profile bui...
University of North Texas Frisco
The University of North Texas (UNT) envisioned a transformative greenfield campus in Frisco to support the region’s rapid growth and diverse economic needs. The site’s challenges, including topographical variation, stormwater management, and integration with natural and urban contexts, required a master plan that fostered innovation and sustainabil...
Stanford Campus Center
Stanford University Facilities Project Management. Cody Anderson Wasney Architects. The addition of the Campus Center required historic renovation, seismic retrofit and a new addition to mark this important intersection of the campus. Specimen elm, cedar, cypress and Japanese black pine provided the overall setting and the design worked to preserve these impor...