The “Grand Candela” commemorates the victims and survivors of the August 2019 mass shooting tragedy at Walmart’s Cielo Vista store. Inspired by the motif of an everlasting candle and set in a plaza within the store’s parking lot, the memorial offers a dedicated place of healing and remembrance. Twenty-two columns of perforated metal, one for each life lost, are joined together in a luminous circle of unity that rises thirty feet– high enough to be seen by the impacted community residing on both sides of the border.
During the day, the metal structure glimmers in the sunlight, the apertures of the individual columns become more discernable upon approach. Programmed lighting at night lends a healing effect, with a votive-inspired glow brightening during the day and dimming to soft vigilance at night. The memorial reads as a luminous beacon, a healing reminder of the community’s oneness.
Work by SWA/Balsley Principal Gerdo Aquino on behalf of SWA
Skyline Park
After an extensive public dialogue on its original design and performance, the City of Denver decided on a redesign of Skyline Park, downtown Denver’s only public open spaces. The three-block-long, three-acre, linear park is at the center of downtown Denver and is bisected by the 16th Street Mall, a lively pedestrian space that connects many of Denver’s attrac...
Faria Lima
A new office tower, theater and café pavilion known as Alameda is being built in the high end district of downtown Sao Paulo; the centerpiece of the site design is the Alameda civic plaza. Lifted gently above the street level, four generous steps invite visitors to enter and explore the plaza while branded light pylons at all major entrances serve as place mar...
33 Beekman
33 Beekman Street Plaza is a public plaza that also serves as the front entrance to a new 30-story Pace University Dormitory, located in the financial district. The contemporary plaza appearance synchronizes with the contemporary plaza of Frank Gehry’s high-rise residential tower across Beekman Street to South.
Jinbocho Redevelopment
Situated in central Tokyo’s university and publishing district, this new mixed-use project brought urban streetscape character to its immediate neighborhood through the introduction of plazas whose fountains, seating areas, cafes and sculptures serve residents, workers, and the community as a refuge from the busy streets.
A diagram of pedestrian flows t...