The new Opera District celebrates the adjacent spectacle of the world’s tallest building, while embracing the rhythm of everyday life. For three distinct mixed-use areas within the nearly 100,000-square-meter District anchored by the namesake opera house, SWA’s layered landscape architecture provides visual and experiential coherence using the concept of a musical score as an overall design generator. This theme extends throughout residential, retail, boulevard, promenade, event, and park spaces. The landscape layout references a musical staff in three sections running from west to east, upon which the paving and furniture designs (or “notes”) are organized and presented. In addition, a green ribbon threads from north to south throughout the District, gathering the buildings and plazas in its loose embrace. This harmonious yet flexible whole sets the stage for activating the “people space” requested by the client, areas which are modeled in spirit after European squares.
Work attributed to SWA/Balsley principal John Wong and his team with SWA Group.
Dubai Hills Boulevard and Public Realm
Envisioned as a “Garden Oasis” strategically situated where city meets desert, Dubai Hills is a vibrant yet elegant mixed-use community for 21st-century living. The key public realm element of this massive 1,000-hectare development is a 5.6-kilometer urban boulevard lined with shops, residences, and offices – the district’s central spine. For Phase 1, SWA/Bals...
Gubei Gold Street
SWA was selected to conceptualize, design, and realize a rare find in bustling Shanghai—a pedestrian mall (Gold Street). The corridor occupies three city blocks, is flanked by 20-story high-rise residential towers with retail at street level and book-ended by SWA-designed parks. Creating an iconic presence and enlivening the area, the mall features plazas, fou...
Riverside Park South Open Space Master Plan
As part of an urban design collaborative with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for this new 65 acre redevelopment, Thomas Balsley Associates led the design effort for the project’s centerpiece, a 26-acre waterfront park on the Hudson River. The effort involved urban design, environmental considerations and a highway relocation; and required a creative, yet pragmat...
East Riverfront Visions Plan
What is now three miles of underutilized and neglected waterfront property is envisioned as a vibrant new mixed-use community, with a dramatic ribbon of riverfront parks and walkways that are intertwined with small neighborhoods and upland connections. A new open space system was conceived and given form as a critical component of the vision plan in which Tho...