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.
Brentwood Town Centre
Following SWA’s development of a 2013 master plan for a new town center adjacent to the existing Brentwood Shopping Mall, the firm was enlisted to design the project’s public realm and expand its role as an integrated, sustainable, urban community. With key connectivity to main vehicular arteries and a high-speed train line, the new development functions as a ...
Burj Khalifa
Playing on the theme of “A Tower in a Park,” this shaded landscape creates a compelling oasis of green, with distinct areas to serve the tower’s hotel, residential, spa and corporate office areas. The visitor begins at the main arrival court at the base of the tower, where the “prow” of the building intersects a grand circular court—a “water room” defined by f...
Lanchi Aqua Garden Hotel
Thomas Balsley Associates was invited to design one of six hotel villa sites near the ancient city of Xi’an. Collaborating with Joel Sanders Architect, the design draws inspiration from the lifestyle and design principles of traditional Chinese gardens. Like these ancient private retreats, this hotel site is also organized around a series of landscaped courtya...
Suzhou Center
The Suzhou Center is a landmark urban space within the Suzhou Central Business District that embodies the spirit of the city of Suzhou as a gateway for intersecting old and new cultural and historic heritage. The successful combination of high density development and ecological conservation will allow for Suzhou to transition to a garden city where the state-o...