SWA Group

01/03/2026

A year after the devastating L.A. fires, SWA's Director of Climate Strategy Jonah Susskind sat down with Architectural Record's Joann Gonchar to discuss the role of landscape architects in designing fire-adaptive communities—and the tools we already have at our fingertips.

"We design parks, but we don’t always talk about them as emergency refuge areas," Jonah describes. "We can design parks as emergency refuges and also as staging areas for firefighting personnel. Trails can serve as a multimodal mobility corridors or as evacuation routes. This is the type of layering that we need to do more of."

RECORD deputy editor Joann Gonchar talks with the landscape architecture firm's director of climate strategy, who served as one of the principal investigators for its 'Playbook for the Pyrocene.'

12/31/2025

Happy New Year from SWA. 💫

2025 was another landmark year for us—marked by major project wins, openings, construction milestones, and anniversaries across the globe; significant honors including a Urban Land Institute Americas Award of Excellence and national American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award (and over three dozen awards in total); a summer student program on wildfire adaptation in Southern California’s wildland-urban interface; a summit with The Cultural Landscape Foundation on global strategies for water management in LA and ASLA’s annual conference in New Orleans; 23 promotions across 8 studios (in Summer and Winter); as well as coverage in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Architect's Newspaper, Wallpaper*, Fast Company, and beyond. It was also the first year of putting our newly-released Climate Action Plan into practice, and so much more.

In 2026, we look forward to celebrating many more moments with all of you—our clients, collaborators, and the extended SWA family. Until then, wishing you a great start to the year.

Illustration by Vera van de Seyp.

12/18/2025

Situated on a protected inlet between the Golden Gate and Richardson Bay, the Sausalito waterfront has occupied an outsized place in the cultural and environmental identity of the Bay Area since the mid-1800s, defined by a muddy mosaic of tidal flats and eelgrass beds sheltered by forested hills. For about a third of that time, SWA has quietly designed spaces across the globe from a low wooden building just a few blocks north of downtown.

The most recent iteration of the city’s ferry landing, a modest hub dating to the 1950s, served generations of commuters and tourists on the Blue & Gold routes but gradually bottlenecked over time. Tracy Way, a short street functioning as downtown’s de facto bike corral, became chronically overcrowded, blocking waterfront views, the cumulative result of a decades-long pattern in which temporary shoreline fixes—parking, circulation workarounds, bits of fill—became a permanent logjam.

In 2020, $2.5 million in federal transit funding was allocated to improve the landing experience, with BKF Engineers and RHAA Landscape Architects initially serving as designers of record before SWA was retained to complete the vision, including the full pedestrianization of Tracy Way. Separating bike and pedestrian flows to enlarge the landing area, the resulting project disentangles queuing areas and connections to the ferry and Vina Del Mar. More than 20 new trees and bioretention areas now capture an estimated two-thirds of stormwater formerly draining into the bay.

12/17/2025

Sneak peek at the wetland walk at Nantong Waterfront Park. Winding along the leveed banks of the Yangtze River, the park is part of a larger effort to transform 1970s-era industrial docks into public space, reconnecting communities with the waterfront while improving flood resilience.

At the confluence of the Tonglü Canal and Rengang River with the Yangtze, roughly 28,000 square meters of wetland were preserved for public enjoyment, supporting a vast range of aquatic and avian species.

More soon, exploring the broader park system.

12/16/2025

In 1966, Tallie Maule—a California architect whose career moved from SOM to postwar Japan and back to lead major civic infrastructure projects—completed a Brutalist 15-floor office building at 525 University Avenue. Defined by a slim, exposed structural grid, the tower remains one of Palo Alto’s few prominent high-rises and was surgically renovated by HGA and SWA this past year. A new building owner, CM Capital, purchased the adjacent 510 Lytton Avenue—an original part of the Maule site plan and connected by an underground parking structure. The design of a continuous landscape provided an opportunity to bring Maule’s original vision to light while doubling the open space program within the historic Downtown District.

For SWA, site work focused on restoring legibility to a plaza that had become visually and physically fragmented—clarifying circulation between elevated terraces and reworking edge conditions, from planters to mismatched railings and low walls, to create intuitive movement across the block. At ground level, deteriorated brick paving was replaced with soft-edged concrete and wood elements aligned to the building’s structural grid. Two pergolas temper persistent downdrafts, while a small amphitheater inset between upper and lower terraces—constructed with locally sourced redwood blocks—marks the step in the historic structural slab and provides informal seating.

As with many aging mid-century structures, waterproofing, drainage, and code upgrades were central to the project’s scope. Working directly over an occupied parking structure, the landscape retrofit addressed long-standing leakage and pooling through a regraded ground plane: gentle slopes now direct runoff toward planting beds with metered irrigation, while high-SRI paving, drought-tolerant planting, and discreet drains reduce heat buildup, lower potable water use, and extend the life of the underlying structure. What had been a patchwork of ad hoc fixes now functions as a coherent, performative ground plane—supporting the building’s careful restoration and extending its longevity as part of Palo Alto’s mid-century design legacy.

12/16/2025

We’re hiring! 📥 With eight studios across the U.S. and China, SWA has designed culturally defining landscapes across the globe since 1957—shaping the future of cities, environments, and infrastructure at all scales. As a 100% employee-owned business, we also have some of the best benefits in the industry. Swipe through for a few open roles in our U.S. studios, plus rolling applications.

Please review the applications in detail and apply via our website:
www.swagroup.com/careers

No DMs please.

Office Manager/Administrative Assistant
📍 New York (SWA/Balsley)

Entry-level Landscape Designer
📍 Dallas, New York

Mid-level Landscape Designer
📍 New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Laguna Beach

Landscape Designer (5+ Years Experience)
📍 Dallas

High-level Landscape Architect
📍 Laguna Beach

BIM Coordinator
📍 New York

Revit/BIM Modeler
📍 Dallas

Construction Administration/Site Observation/Field Specialists in Landscape Architecture
📍 Dallas, Houston

Rolling Applications: Entry-level & Intern Landscape Designers
📍 U.S. Studios (Dallas, Houston, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Sausalito)c

12/15/2025

This past year, Walmart’s new headquarters in Bentonville continued to take shape, with large portions of the 350-acre campus now established and beginning to grow in. Designed by SWA in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of architects led by Gensler, the campus marks a long-term reinvestment in the Ozarks community where the company was founded in 1962, reimagining the corporate headquarters as a connected, landscape-driven workplace prioritizing multimodal transportation.

Over the past year, the campus’s framework of open space and mobility has become increasingly legible on the ground. A mile-long forested greenway—aligned with the path of a historic creek—anchors daily movement across the site, while segments of the broader 6.7-mile network of complete streets, shaded walkways, and soft-surface trails link to Bentonville and the regional Razorback Greenway system. More than 115 acres of native and adapted Arkansan landscapes are maturing across the site, including highlands forest, bluestem prairie, seasonal wetlands, and pollinator habitats, alongside preserved and relocated mature canopy and thousands of newly planted trees.

Meanwhile, constructed lakes and bioswales at the north and south ends of the site are beginning to operate as a connected stormwater network, designed to collect, filter, and redistribute up to 52 million gallons of water annually. At the same time, expanded bike infrastructure, EV charging, and trail connections are reinforcing Walmart’s goal of shifting everyday commuting patterns, with nearly half of its local workforce living within five miles of campus.

🔗 Learn more on our website: https://www.swagroup.com/projects/walmart-new-home-campus/

12/12/2025

SWA’s Dallas studio has been reconnecting the city for decades.

Over 25 years ago, the Katy Trail sparked the vision for The Loop Dallas—a contiguous 50-mile circuit of multimodal trails—most recently realized through the Hi Line Connector, a mile-long greenway extending the Katy Trail through Victory Park and the Design District, bridging a new connection to the Trinity Strand Trail and Trinity riverfront across I-35E.

This week, the Hi Line Connector was honored by the Greater Dallas Planning Council, winning the built work category in the 2025 Trinity Urban Design Awards, recognizing its role in closing long-standing gaps in the city’s trail network and expanding safe, everyday access between neighborhoods, employment centers, and the riverfront.

Thanks to the jury for this recognition—and congratulations to our partners at The Loop, Dallas Parks, TxDOT, and countless others.

🔗 Learn more: https://www.swagroup.com/projects/hi-line-connector/

12/12/2025

This past weekend, SWA Principals gathered in Los Angeles for The Cultural Landscape Foundation's Soak It Up conference and our biannual Principals Meeting, focused on landscape-scale approaches to water management in Southern California and beyond.

Opening with cocktails at SWA’s LA studio with remarks by Co-CEO Gerdo Aquino, TCLF’s Charles Birnbaum, and Lauren Bon, artist and Director of Metabolic Studio, the conference continued last Friday at USC with panels honoring the late landscape architect Kongjian Yu and perspectives from global practitioners including Studio-MLA, OLIN, West 8, Design Workshop, TEN x TEN, Kounkuey Design Initiative, and more; as well as academics, journalists, and agencies across the region.

On Saturday, SWA Principals reconvened at the LA studio for a daylong working session, comparing regional approaches to water-sensitive design—from post-fire landscapes and legacy infrastructure in California to watershed-scale challenges in Texas, the Bay Area, the Mountain West, and East Asia—translating lessons from the conference into shared priorities around early-phase design, climate risk, and long-term stewardship.

🔗 Read more on our website:
https://www.swagroup.com/stories/tclf-soak-it-up-and-fall-principals-meeting/

12/12/2025

In recognition of their extraordinary contributions to SWA’s practice, we’re proud to announce 10 promotions across our global studios—including two new Associate Principals and eight new Associates.

Please join us in congratulating each of these individuals on their exceptional work and leadership within studios and across the firm at large.

🔗 Read more: https://www.swagroup.com/stories/winter-2025-promotions/

12/10/2025

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) recently announced its selection of SWA as landscape architect for a major redesign of the public realm at the World Trade Center Seoul—one of Asia’s preeminent convention, shopping, and exhibition venues.

Junglim Architecture is local architecture lead for the redevelopment, with Seo-Ahn Landscape Architecture as local landscape architecture lead; Heatherwick Studio has also been commissioned as the architect of a new exhibition hall façade at the center of the complex. Working in close collaboration with each team, SWA will lead the design of a new 36-acre public realm and urban forest enveloping the overall campus.

Along Yeongdong-daero, one of Seoul’s major arteries, SWA’s proposal integrates triple rows of plane trees on a raised platform with adjacent clusters of ginkgo, oaks, maple, and pine, forming a green corridor that connects the World Trade Center Seoul to the planned Gangnam Intermodal Transit Center (GITC), Hyundai Global Business Center (GBC), and Jamsil Sports Complex to the east, and historic Seonjeongneung burial ground to the west. Divided over three interconnected plazas anchored in a central woodland, the plan carefully weaves an estimated 423 canopy trees across the site, cooling the streetscape by up to 4°C—coupled with shade structures, fountains, and misting features during summer; and heated furniture and trellises in winter.

Using a predominantly native plant palette and locally quarried stone as landscape materials, SWA’s plan is projected to sequester enough carbon by the mid-2040s to surpass its embodied carbon, capturing an estimated 1,936 tons of atmospheric CO2 in its densely planted forest over its first 60 years of occupancy, according to an initial calculation by Carbon Positive Design.

As this is still a conceptual vision, design will be subject to further refinement over months to come.

🔗 Learn more: https://www.swagroup.com/stories/swa-to-design-urban-forest-at-world-trade-center-seoul/

12/09/2025

This fall, the National Civil Rights Museum opened its renovated west campus landscapes, collaboratively designed by Howard+Revis as prime with Self+Tucker and SWA. This marks a return to a site of extraordinary historic and cultural significance where the same team collaborated two decades ago to shape the Museum’s first major expansion.

The new phase of work expands the Museum campus with Founders Park, an amphitheater for performances and civic demonstrations aligned with perspective lines toward the Lorraine Motel balcony where Dr. King stood; shaded “ascending rooms” designed as outdoor classrooms; and the Legacy Terrace, a panoramic overlook—with new vantage points of the motel balcony—that pairs meadow-inspired planting with contemplative gathering spaces organized into a swirling form. The design team collaborated closely with the Museum and its steering committee to ensure that the landscape provides a powerful yet understated backdrop to the historic motel while preserving the authenticity of the site, a key step as the Museum pursues UNESCO World Heritage designation.

New entries, signage, and lighting improve connectivity and visitor experience, carefully minimizing visual clutter so that the Lorraine Motel remains the site’s defining landmark. Subtle design gestures, such as stainless steel lines embedded in paving forming a viewshed toward the balcony where Dr. King stood, acknowledge history without prescribing a single interpretation of events. Seasonal planting, designed in collaboration with award-winning horticulturist Patrick Cullina, recalls the historic field conditions around the motel while providing color and bloom cycles timed to annual commemorations like MLK Day. The museum’s new Legacy Building and renovated Boarding House are slated to open in April 2026.

🔗 Learn more: https://www.swagroup.com/projects/national-civil-rights-museum/