The Camellias Garden is inspired by the verdant green gardens of India and the petals of one of Asia’s most beautiful and vibrant native plant species: the camellia flower. These blooms’ flowing curves and lines are interpreted within the Garden’s design, drawing residents of these 16 luxury apartment towers out into the landscape and offering the sense of being enveloped by petals.
The design offers a unique view from each of the site’s primary features: the Pond, the Centering Garden, and the Colonnade. Each of these spaces provides a different respective function – the experience of lush plants and water; a space for quiet contemplation; and a place for gathering and socializing. Taken as a whole, the Camellias Garden is a centering, green respite for its residents’ everyday life.
The Camellias was honored with an International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design in 2022.
Riverside Park South
On the West Side of Manhattan, on the scenic Hudson River shoreline, Riverside Park South is a massive, multi-phase project of sweeping ambition and historic scope. Combining new greenspace, new infrastructure, and the renovation of landmark industrial buildings, the plan—originally devised by Thomas Balsley Associates in 1991—is an extension of Frederick Law ...
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...
Normandie Court
Normandie Court is a large luxury residential complex which occupies an entire city block of the Upper East Side. Coinciding with the transformation of the 2nd Avenue corridor by the MTA subway expansion, the owners were inspired to redesign the exterior and landscape. They called on SWA/Balsley’s experience and vision to provide a complete redesign, which wou...
SKY Tower
SKY is a luxurious 71-story residential tower whose new at-grade and rooftop landscapes figure prominently at the western extremities of this world-famous street.
SWA/Balsley’s designs for the project merge a crisp, contemporary geometry with a refined material sensibility. The residences’ motor court stands at the front door of an otherwise transparen...