SWA

Where longshoremen once unloaded goods from cargo ships, people now relax along the waterfront in Long Island City's Gantry Plaza State Park. The New York Times featured the SWA/Balsley project in a round-up of transformed piers across the five boroughs. Over 300 piers served the city's manufacturing industry, but as production declined and the piers went unused, New York looked to increase access to the waterfront by adapting many of these platforms into parks. SWA/Balsley, together with Weintraub di Domenico, envisioned Gantry Plaza State Park as a place that celebrates its past and future, electing to keep the gantries that once unloaded cargo ships at the piers. Completed nearly 25 years ago, the design sought to heal a once-divided community and instill a strong sense of neighborhood spirit and pride. The Friends of Gantry Plaza State Park alliance, formed to protect the park, testifies to the power of this place.

For Architectural Record's continuing education series, SWA's Climate and Sustainability Lead Sarah Fitzgerald spoke to Joann Gonchar, FAIA, LEED AP about carbon emissions and sequestration associated with built landscapes, pulling from her experience co-authoring the American Society of Landscape Architects' Climate Action Plan. "We're the only design profession that works with living systems," says Sarah—and with that comes the ability to sink carbon into biomass. Read the full article here:

In "The Urbanist: Dan Doctoroff and the Rise of New York," a book about the former Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, two SWA/Balsley projects are highlighted for their transformative impact on the city and its neighborhoods. The book describes the redevelopment of Hunter's Point from an industrial site into a residential area, led by New York City's bid to host the 2012 Olympics. While the proposal was unsuccessful, the idea to place the Olympic Village at Hunter's Point's Southern end helped realize the neighborhood's transformation. Doctoroff pushed forward the plan, resulting in the construction of over 3,500 market-rate and affordable housing units, along with an internationally acclaimed 11-acre park: Hunter's Point South. The book features another Olympic bid site, which proposed the redevelopment of two public facilities along the Harlem River. The proposal did not come to fruition, but the attention to the under-utilized spaces helped set the stage for their redevelopment. The new stadium for the New York Yankees opened in 2009 and 55 acres of new public parks were created, all of which were led by SWA/Balsley. They include Heritage Field at Macombs Dam Park, a space for athletic events, community activities, and relaxation. In the footprint of the original stadium, SWA/Balsley's 44-acre design includes the largest rooftop park ever built in the city, as well as the 400-meter Joseph Yancy Track and Field.

Congrats to SWA Associate Sarah Fitzgerald on her appointment to the City of Dallas Urban Design Review Panel (UDRP)! Sarah serves as firm-wide Climate & Sustainability Lead, spearheading SWA’s approach to evolve practice to better address the challenges of the climate crisis. Sarah’s professional experience spans public parks, healthcare, academic, mixed-use, and streetscapes, as well as urban design and master planning. The UDRP, comprised of local Design, Planning, and Engineering professionals, provides urban design advice to City staff, the City's Tax Increment Fund Boards, the Plan Commission, and the City Council as applicable. https://lnkd.in/e2CWYwsa

Introducing Harvest Green's zesty new amenity: The Slice! Designed by SWA, the new citrus-themed complex is a highlight of the Richmond district's 630-acre, 1,250-home expansion. The project includes two grapefruit-slice-shaped pools with water slides, along with a splash pad and shaded lounge area, all coated in bright shades of pink and yellow. On the team's approach to creating the family-friendly amenity, SWA Landscape Architect Olivia Pinner shared, "When designing the playground, we followed principles of universal design in an effort to provide a variety of play options for various age groups and abilities." Read more:

SWA Associate Mariana Ricker recently contributed her expertise to ULI San Francisco's Technical Assistance Panel, providing strategic recommendations to revitalize Downtown Vacaville. Keep an eye out for the final report, authored by SWA's Alison Ecker, AICP, ASLA, coming this November. Stay tuned!

Nestled in the seaside community of Redondo Beach, King Harbor’s water and land recreation, commercial experiences, and dining opportunities occupy more than 150 acres, serving the public since its formal dedication and opening in 1966 as a protected harbor. In 2021, SWA partnered with the City of Redondo Beach to create a comprehensive public amenities plan spanning the waterfront, proposing strategies to adapt to sea-level rise and king tides while preserving the community’s character. Combining in-person and virtual participation, input from more than 500 respondents was factored into a cohesive connectivity and waterfront framework guiding the area’s long-term growth in years to come. Jana Wehby, SWA Associate Principal, explained, "We knew that pop-up events would likely generate more interest in the online meetings and surveys. The City hosts popular weekend events, including a well-known farmers market that is a destination for both locals and visitors. We focused on timing our pop-up installations – with SWA staff on-site for 4-5 hours during each event – to coincide with these times and locations."

On August 24, join SWA Associate Mariana Ricker at the ASLA Northern CA Chapter 2024 Landscape X Symposium, where she will present "A Path to Climate Action: Sustainability Performance + Funding." Mariana will be joined by industry experts from Atelier Ten and Momentum (BuildMomentum.io). Registration closes this Friday! Learn more here:

As engineering advancements allow us to build taller buildings, SWA's John L. Wong, FASLA, FAAR makes the case for pairing investments in the ground-level public realm in a new monograph: "Selected Works of Landscape Architect John L. Wong: From Private To Public Ground, From Small To Tall." Since joining the firm in 1976, Wong has designed landscapes for nearly 100 towers around the world, including 12 of the 100 tallest, collaborating with architects like Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), KPF, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, and many others. He has also designed possibly more campus landscapes than any living landscape architect, including a decades-long collaboration with Stanford University. In a first interview with Fast Company's Nate Berg, John spoke about the book, which recounts five decades of his career. “Because of the technology and the engineering, we’ll continue to do tall structures and they will get even taller,” Wong says. “On the groundscape, the way you design to connect to the rest of the city will be even more important.” Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/e7RtEfqU

XL Lab's "Playbook for the Pyrocene" has received an AIA California 2024 Urban Design Merit Award! The jury selected the "timely and necessary" project featuring design strategies for fire-prone communities for its role as "a resilience resource in urban design... It addresses the complexity of the issues in a graphically clear way for both laymen and professionals." Read more about the project's win here: