The Macombs Dam park ensemble consists of a variety of lush, contemporary green spaces in which the community can relax, socialize, and play. One segment of the landscape is a 13 acre park on the roof of the stadium parking structure, the largest full-service rooftop park every built by the City; another segment is an at-grade park where the now demolished Yankee Stadium used to stand. The rooftop park consists of an eight lane running track named after Olympian coach Joe Yancey, as well as a combination football/soccer field, 500-600 seat grandstand, comfort station, handball courts, basketball courts, adult fitness center, grassy knolls and a sledding slope. Heritage Field is perhaps the most highly anticipated piece of this South Bronx miracle: softball, little league and a regulation public baseball field where neighborhoods kids can play in the footprints of Babe Ruth. The Stantec/Thomas Balsley Associates team has composed heavily planted landforms and bioswales which define the edges of the sports fields and give the appearance of a place carved into the woodland. This extraordinary park has transformed a concrete behemoth into a verdant multipurpose greensward honoring its Yankee heritage.
Stanford University Campus Planning and Projects
Over the past 20 plus years SWA has been working with Stanford University to reclaim the 100-year-old master plan vision of Leland Stanford and Frederick Law Olmsted for the campus. This series of campus improvement projects has restored the historic axis, open spaces, and landscape patterns. With Stanford Management Company, SWA designed the Sand Hill corrido...
Perk Park
Originally completed in 1972, Perk Park is a vestige of IM Pei’s urban renewal plan. It was built in an era when the street was seen as a menace so parks turned inward. Rolling berms around the edges and sunken areas in the middle, filled with concrete retaining walls, reflected that era. Not surprisingly, the park fell into decline; abandoned by the neighborh...
Gotham West
Gotham West is a residential development west of Times Square that nearly encompasses a full city block. Two mid-rise buildings and a market-rate tower form to create a signature courtyard that is accessed from the tower’s lobby. A sculptural Japanese maple, floating within a reflecting pool, is centered with the lobby entrance, and serves as a focal feature. ...
Gantry Plaza State Park
Once a working waterfront teeming with barges, tugboats, and rail cars, the Hunter’s Point shoreline of Queens slowly succumbed to the realities of the post-Industrial Age. As the last rail barge headed into the sunset, this spectacular site was left to deteriorate to a point of community shame. As part of the Queens West Parks Master Plan, Thomas Balsley Asso...