The Gateway Mall runs 18 blocks through the center of downtown St. Louis, terminating at the famous Eero Saarinen Arch, and provides a green spine in which the downtown’s workers, residents, and visitors can relax and celebrate urban living.
The mall never fully lived up to the potential envisioned by the civic leaders at the time of its inception. Thomas Balsley Associates was commissioned to prepare a design master plan and guidelines that will reimagine the mall as the city’s “front lawn” and defining public space. The new mall will vibrate with the beat of urban living for the businesses and homeowners returning to downtown. Each block has been carefully programmed, and is being redesigned with activities ranging from urban performance plazas and sculpture gardens to grand civic spaces, water parks, and recreational areas.
Guiyang CBD
In the heart of Guizhou province lies China’s Forest City: Guiyang. Nestled on the banks of the Nanming River, today’s Guiyang is a vibrant metropolis poised to play a significant role in the rapid development of inland China. The Nanming Riverfront Cultural Central Business District Master Plan, led by SOM, leverages this potential and proposes Guiyang as the...
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...
Dubai Expo 2020
From October 2021 to April 2022, the City of Dubai will host the World Expo: a large-scale International Registered Exhibition that will bring nations together with universal themes and immersive experiences. It will comprise an entire new city, built on a 1,083-acre site between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Expo site is organized around a central plaza linked to ...
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...