The World Trade Center Building, also known as Cosmos Tower, is the centerpiece of Cosmos City, a mixed-use development along Osaka’s harborfront. The tower’s base is dedicated to public spaces, including a major retail center that, together with the adjoining Asian Trading Center, attracts visitors, office workers and shoppers. The public open spaces consist of a huge indoor-outdoor atrium space and connecting outdoor spaces that create a park-like setting.
The designer’s greatest challenge was the below-grade slabs and rows of concrete ventilators below. Balsley imaginatively reshaped and incorporated these unsightly intruders into intriguing sculptural features with random perforations that allow light and steam to escape. The concrete ventilators in the North Garden have been transformed into a performance stage structure while the six in the South Plaza appear as cone sculptures. Set in a mist pool and glowing red at night, these distinctive stainless steel cones provide an astonishingly beautiful and mysterious sight that helps to define the street level image and stylistic tone for the entire project.
250 West 55th
One Uptown
Bringing a singular landscape design expression to a site featuring two buildings designed by different architects, the SWA/Balsley team worked to seamlessly integrate a variety of outdoor spaces to accommodate the mixed-use One Uptown. At the ground level, tree-lined streetscapes and bike lanes lead visitors to a coworking and dining courtyard along Burnet Ro...
Marinaside Crescent
SWA provided urban design and overall conceptual landscape architectural design for this mixed-use project including condominium buildings with shops, restaurants and storefronts at street level, a waterfront promenade, a marina, parks and inner building courtyards, and pedestrian-oriented pathways linking the Marinaside Crescent Road and surrounding streets. ...
Giant Interactive Headquarters
We collaborated with Morphosis Architects on a new ecological park and living laboratory for Giant Interactive Headquarters, a 45-acre corporate campus in Shanghai, China. The design concept blurs the distinction between the ground plane and the structure, weaving water and wetland habitats together with the folded green roof of the main building design. The s...