Living History 
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DETAILS

LocationNew York, New York, United States
ClientRiverside Park South Planning Corporation
Size24 acres

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 Olmsted’s famed Riverside Park, carrying it a further thirteen blocks beyond its traditional southern boundary. At the same time, the scheme calls for the elevated Miller Highway, long a barrier between the city and its waterfront, to be replaced by an underground tunnel topped by lawns and surface streets, affording unimpeded access from new high-rise apartment buildings and upland neighborhoods to the parks and paths along the river. The product of a unique partnership between private developers and municipal government, Thomas Balsley Associates’ design balances the needs of local community members, regulatory agencies, and the natural environment. Century-old pier structures and gantry towers, paying homage to New York’s maritime past, become part of a dynamic scenography that includes a network of boardwalks, esplanades, paved paths, and planted margins, all of it giving the visitor the chance to rediscover the Hudson in encounters that range from the intimate to the urbane, the lyrical to the theatrical.

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...

Hunter's Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point

Perched on the edge of San Francisco Bay, the Hunters Point Shipyard was an important naval manufacturing center for the WWI and WWII war efforts. Now abandoned, the shipyard, along with Candlestick Point, will be combined into a new mixed use residential, retail and light industry development — the largest in San Francisco since WWII. Thomas Balsley Ass...

Bayfront Parks Master Plan

Bounded by the scenic Hudson to the east, Jersey City is lined with high-rise towers and waterfront parks offering views of Manhattan. To the west, the often-overlooked Hackensack features wetlands, industry, and degraded post-industrial sites. The Bayfront Redevelopment Master Plan aims to transform a formerly contaminated 100-acre site on the Hackensack Rive...

Dubai Opera District

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 mus...