Reclaiming private land for public use, one of Washington D.C.’s most dangerous intersections has been targeted for vast improvements. The project kicked off with the demolition of a Wendy’s restaurant on site and implemented new road alignments to ease traffic congestion. SWA worked with NoMa community groups and the Department of Transportation on the new vision for the intersection.
For Mamie “Peanut” Johnson Plaza, named in a public vote after the first female pitcher in the Negro Leagues, the team drew inspiration from the surrounding context to develop concepts that protect pedestrians and provide sheltered areas to sit, eat, and play. Softly sloping berms are used as multi-functional elements buffering traffic, collecting stormwater, and providing sculptural seat-walls. The new design adds 75 shade trees, pollinator plantings, play elements, and protected bike lanes, reestablishing the intersection as a multimodal gateway rather than a hazard zone. In the first five months of 2025, crash numbers were already down 40% from pre-construction conditions.
Today, NoMa is one of the city’s most densely populated and transit-connected communities, home to nearly 13,000 residents navigating its streets daily. The new plaza, delivered through a partnership between DDOT, NoMa BID, and the NoMa Parks Foundation, creates safer connections between Eckington and the core of NoMa—turning a deadly knot into a safer public commons.
Nickerson Gardens Playground
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 collaborat...
Resonant Memory: One October Memorial
Inspired by the shared love of country music that brought people from all over the world together for the Route 91 Music Festival, Resonant Memory is based on the shape of an acoustic guitar. The design makes particular use of the instrument’s sound hole as a recurring motif to represent absence, honoring the lives lost on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada...
OCT Bao’an Waterfront Cultural Park
Bao’an Waterfront Park is an essential amenity for future residents of Shenzhen’s rapidly expanding Qianhai area, and is also an important connection between the urban fabric and the ocean. The key landscape frameworks for the park are its riverine interpretation aspects and water’s edge programs. The “Eco River” will bring water experiences into the green spa...
Nelson Mandela Park Master Plan
Identified by the City as one of its “Big Five” open space projects, the conceptual master plan for Nelson Mandela Park will create a much-needed central open space for the city’s south district, an industrial area along the waterfront that is home to a growing and increasingly diverse population. Here the city seeks to transcend its current park paradigm of l...