SWA provided planning services related to entitlement and land use for 1,400 acres of land in the City of Irvine, representing the last “flat land” development within the Irvine Ranch. Fundamental to the planning of Woodbury was the concept of a village “commons” with a mix of retail, residential, and office uses, which also includes a recreation center, public community park, and elementary school as well as a series of neighborhood parks, echoing a variety of distinct architectural styles. Equally important was the establishment of the landscape framework that became the backbone of the community, with four major entryways, two green inner loops, and a pedestrian esplanade providing connections between the village commons and the retail center. The enclave connects to the Jeffrey Open Space Trail, an innovative departure at the time from traditional urban park landscapes to ‘California Native Meadow’. It also introduced the first phase of a now-implemented broader regional trail system. SWA worked with the City staff in preparing the General Plan, pre-zoning, and annexation applications. This project received the Pacific Coast Builders Gold Nugget Grand Award in 2004 for the “Best Community Site Plan—100 Acres or More”.
Magee Ranch
The project site is a beautiful 540-acre hillside ranch in suburban Contra Costa County, California. It was slated for development by the City of Danville as a clustered planned community. The development concept was to preserve the essential beauty of the ranch and to allow some 300 homes to be built with the least possible impact. The City’s Planning C...
Shady Canyon
Shady Canyon is a 1,070-acre residential community and land preservation project in the heart of bustling, master-planned Orange County. The project carefully integrates the natural environment into every aspect of the community which consists of 400 custom and builder homes, a golf course that preserves important biological resources, swim center, recreation ...
Ghaf Woods
At the southern edge of Dubai, Ghaf Woods—a new 182-acre mixed-use community—is positioned to become the region’s first “forest living” community, inverting the city’s typical development pattern through its organization around tree canopy rather than buildings. Planned to deliver over 7,000 homes for an estimated 26,000 residents, the development is being con...
Bridgeland Prairieland Village
Located in the southwest quadrant of the Bridgeland master-planned community, which will house 70,000 residents upon completion, Prairieland Village comprises a variety of land uses adjacent to natural spaces that connect to the Cypress Creek boundary to the north and John Paul’s Landing to the south. At the heart of Prairieland’s design is the rel...