SWA Group

SWA Group SWA is a long-standing, employee-owned collective of eight independent studios practicing landscape architecture, planning, and urban design.

Today, the role of design in shaping academic and research institutions extends beyond aesthetics—increasingly, campuses...
04/09/2026

Today, the role of design in shaping academic and research institutions extends beyond aesthetics—increasingly, campuses are serving as outdoor classrooms, infrastructure to manage stormwater and heat, and civic anchors for the communities that surround them. At the same time, access to green space has been shown to reduce students’ stress, support mental health, and improve concentration in a world defined by constant digital stimulation.

Last week, we explored a few of SWA’s long-term collaborations with colleges and universities. This week, a few individual projects vary widely in scale and context: the Centro Roberto Garza Sada at Universidad de Monterrey in Mexico, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and a new central quad at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn.

🔗 Read the full story: https://www.swagroup.com/stories/higher-education-50-years-of-university-planning/

04/06/2026

This month only: earn 4.5 FREE CEUs! Register now to view the richly edited videos of the dynamic presentations at Soak It Up, the recent daylong conference organized by TCLF that focused on how landscape architects are at the forefront of addressing climate change-accelerated urban flooding and water management. It was inspired by the work of the late landscape architect and Oberlander Prize winner Kongjian Yu, the global champion of the “sponge cities” concept, and featured exciting and provocative speakers discussing fascinating issues, among them the most recent Oberlander Prize winner, Mario Schjetnan from Mexico City.

The conference videos will be available for THIS MONTH ONLY on PlayCore’s CORE Professional Development Hub and offers opportunities to receive IACET CEUs, AIA CEs, and LA CES credits. Register now at the link below and use code “PARTNER" to register.

https://www.tclf.org/watch-soak-it-los-angeles

📸 Soak it Up Conference, USC Bovard Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA - Photo by David Lloyd, 2025

We're proud to share that Courthouse Park received a Merit Award in ASLA NY's 2026 Design Awards. SWA's vision for the 3...
04/06/2026

We're proud to share that Courthouse Park received a Merit Award in ASLA NY's 2026 Design Awards.

SWA's vision for the 3.4-acre site in Jersey City proposes the transformation of a former county administration building and surface parking lot into a layered civic landscape for Journal Square, one of the city's most transit-rich yet park-starved neighborhoods. The design harnesses a 10-foot grade change to create two distinct but connected zones: an active lower park oriented toward the historic Brennan Courthouse, and a verdant upper park anchored by an urban forest.

Congrats to the team and our fellow awardees! See the full list:
https://www.aslany.org/asla-ny-announces-2026-design-award-winners/

We're honored to share that four SWA Houston projects were recognized in Texas ASLA's 2026 Design Awards—including an Aw...
04/02/2026

We're honored to share that four SWA Houston projects were recognized in Texas ASLA's 2026 Design Awards—including an Award of Excellence, Honor Award, and two Merit Awards. Congratulations to the teams, clients, and collaborators behind each.

🏆 BoAi Lake (Foshan, China) | Award of Excellence, International, Design, Constructed, Images 1–3

🏆 Eastwood Park (Houston, TX) | Honor Award, Design, Unrealized, Images 4–6

🏆 SWA Houston 6th Floor Terrace (Houston, TX) | Merit Award, Design, Constructed; Institutional, Corporate, Commercial, Images 7–9

🏆 Skygarden Terrace at Haihao Tower (Guangzhou, China) | Merit Award, International, Design, Constructed; Residential, Images 10–13

04/01/2026

Following the announcement of SWA's selection as lead landscape architect for the redesign of the World Trade Center Seoul’s public realm, we sat down with San Francisco Principal Ji Hyun Yoo and Managing Principal René Bihan to learn more.

Divided over three interconnected plazas surrounding a central woodland, SWA's plan for the 23-acre site is anchored in a sprawling urban forest, carefully weaving an estimated 423 canopy trees across the site and cooling the streetscape by up to 4°C. Watch to learn more, and stay tuned for updates in the coming months.

At their best, college and university campuses are mirrors to society.Over the past 50 years, the nature of campus plann...
03/31/2026

At their best, college and university campuses are mirrors to society.

Over the past 50 years, the nature of campus planning has shifted dramatically, responding to aging infrastructure, shifting mobility patterns, technological innovation, climate risk, and growing demands for institutions to embody social and cultural values. At SWA, our work has evolved in parallel.

For the next few weeks, we’ll be kicking off a series exploring our campus planning projects across the globe. First up, selections from long-running collaborations in California, with more to come.

🔗 Read more: https://www.swagroup.com/stories/higher-education-50-years-of-university-planning/

Featured in the spring issue of National Audubon Society's magazine, the SWA-designed Kathrine G. McGovern Canopy Walk a...
03/31/2026

Featured in the spring issue of National Audubon Society's magazine, the SWA-designed Kathrine G. McGovern Canopy Walk at Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary lifts visitors into the canopy, offering intimate views above the wetlands of High Island, where roseate spoonbills, great egrets, cormorants, and black-crowned night herons nest in rookeries below.

Formerly an oil field and now one of North America’s premier birding destinations, the canopy walk was collaboratively designed with Houston Audubon, carefully woven among mature heritage oaks.

🔗 Read more: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/7-canopy-walks-where-you-can-get-birds-eye-view-of-spring-migration

Happy opening day for Major League Baseball! Last year, more than 71 million fans attended Major League Baseball games. ...
03/26/2026

Happy opening day for Major League Baseball! Last year, more than 71 million fans attended Major League Baseball games. Millions more tuned in around the world, with the World Series alone averaging 34 million viewers across the U.S., Canada, and Japan and peaking at over 50 million for Game 7.

Before attendees take their seats, the stadium landscape serves as the first inning of the fan experience—guiding movement, easing arrival, and setting the tone from city to seat. These plazas, streetscapes, and open spaces don’t just move crowds; they welcome them, connect them, and extend the energy of the game beyond the stadium.

___

Slides 1-2: St. Louis Ballpark Village (St. Louis, MO)
Slides 3-4: Macombs Dam Park (New York, NY)
Slides 5-6: Las Vegas Ballpark (Las Vegas, NV)
Slides 7-8: Texas Rangers Ballpark (Arlington, TX)

Happy first day of spring. 🌱In honor of the equinox, a roll call across a few signature and lesser-known projects. In se...
03/20/2026

Happy first day of spring. 🌱

In honor of the equinox, a roll call across a few signature and lesser-known projects. In sequence: Golden Shoal Riverfront Park, Buffalo Bayou Park, Bayou Greenways, Charleston Park, Harvest Green, Universidad de Monterrey, Hunter’s Point South Park, Giant Interactive Headquarters, Eucalyptus Society Garden, CSULB Peterson Hall, High Island Audubon Sanctuary, Millbrae Recreation Center

“Less than five miles north of the center of Santa Fe, Bishop’s Lodge is set on 317 secluded acres at the edge of the Sa...
03/18/2026

“Less than five miles north of the center of Santa Fe, Bishop’s Lodge is set on 317 secluded acres at the edge of the Sangre de Cristo foothills and feels far removed from the city’s adobe sprawl,” writes Kevin Doyle for T: The New York Times Style Magazine this week.

“Guests can set out on any of the 10 hiking trails that start directly on the property, taking, for instance, a one-mile trek through pinyon, juniper and sagebrush and up to a ridge with panoramic high-desert views.”

SWA played a central role in the resort’s master plan, working alongside the design team to shape a site-sensitive guest experience across 317 acres in the Sangre de Cristo foothills. Preserving the property’s piñon-juniper woodland was a top priority, guiding other decisions like building placement, circulation, and viewshed protection.

Throughout, planting design layers in drought-tolerant species, with drifts of native grass and high meadow mix forming a hardy understory. Already, mule deer and other wildlife have begun to return and graze, indicators of a functioning high-desert ecosystem where habitat and hydrology are aligned.

🔗 Read the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/t-magazine/hiking-trails-hotels.html

03/12/2026

For many at SWA, the foundation of landscape architecture still begins with drawing, even as advanced applications of digital and AI tools are rapidly transforming how we visualize and communicate design ideas. As new technologies are woven into practice, the mindset behind sketching, iterating, and producing technical drawings remains an essential skill. Whether perfecting the contours of a site plan or diagramming a planting concept, hand drawing keeps designers closely connected to the act of making, reminding us that behind every digital rendering is a human hand shaping the land.

For SWA's 2025 Patrick T. Curran Fellowship, a range of senior and mid-level designers at the firm spoke about the importance of sketching and mentorship, including Andrew Gressett (Houston), Chuck McDaniel (Dallas), Ji Hyun Yoo, and Jim Lee (both San Francisco).

Landscape architecture has always evolved in response to constraints. Today, as pressure mounts to decarbonize the built...
03/11/2026

Landscape architecture has always evolved in response to constraints. Today, as pressure mounts to decarbonize the built environment, a familiar set of questions are emerging around the aesthetic expectations associated with low-carbon design.

Material sourcing, planting strategies, and construction methods all shape a project’s embodied carbon. They also mean tangible changes in a landscape’s form, texture, and character. As these decisions begin to shift in a more climate-friendly direction, so too does the visual language of contemporary landscapes.

As part of our ongoing blog series, The Low-Carbon Landscape, SWA’s Director of Climate Strategy Jonah Susskind looks at ways these shifts are registering in parks, campuses, playgrounds, and other spaces across our portfolio.

Read the full story:
https://www.swagroup.com/stories/what-does-the-low-carbon-landscape-look-like/

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94965

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