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.
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...
Pacific Park
Pacific Park is a major mixed-use development in the Atlantic Terminal area of Brooklyn, New York. When complete, it will occupy approximately 22 acres, including the air rights above the approximately nine-acre, below-grade Long Island Rail Road Storage Yard.
The open space, with an area of about eight acres at grade, is being designed by Thomas Balsle...
Sava Promenada at the Belgrade Waterfront
SWA’s role includes creating a detailed master plan, conceptual design, and preparation of design guidelines for a one-million-square-meter (100-hectare) site along the Sava River, next to the historic town center of Belgrade. The developer’s goal is to create a world-class sustainable waterfront development, as the single largest regeneration proj...
Flushing Commons
This ten-acre mixed-use development with parks, plazas, and retail will become the center of social and retail activity in downtown Flushing. Driven mostly by an influx of immigrants from East Asia, Flushing is one of the fastest-growing and most diverse neighborhoods in the US. Abuzz with shopping and socializing at all hours of the day and evening, its stree...