This new riverfront development is located on the Yangtze River in the Baoshan District of Shanghai. This area boasts some of the highest shipping activity in the world. However, in recent years this single-function industrial zone has given way, allowing for waterfront parks to develop. Within this historically layered water front the Baoshan Park and Open Space Plan links three multi-use development districts to each other and their seafront.
Springing up among the cranes and shipping containers, with giant machines dominating the landscape the new Harbor City Parks will bring fresh life to this industrial district of Shanghai. This series of multi-faceted open space includes two large parks, one that speaks to civic and commercial adjacencies, and the other as common ground that connects two residential communities. At the terminus of both the parks running along the Yangtze’s edge is the elevated waterfront promenade and lower water side esplanade. These two corridors act as the project spine, linking all the mixed uses of the project together, while allowing sweeping views of the once disconnected riverfront. Visitors are invited to descend down to the esplanade level and reclaim the post-industrial river. As future urban development continues to push from Shanghai center, Harbor City Parks will serve as a precedent for the new post-industrial Baoshan.
Balsley Park
Located on Manhattan’s West Side, Balsley Park, formerly known as Sheffield Plaza, has been transformed from a barren, lifeless plaza into the community’s most cherished common ground.
Following public outcry and many failed attempts to redesign the plaza, Thomas Balsley Associates was hired to build community consensus around a new park-like image and ...
Paveletskaya Plaza
Situated along Moscow’s Ring Road and adjacent to the legendary Paveletsky Station transportation hub, the park at Paveletskaya Plaza will both cover and reveal the new bustling underground retail facility below while also serving as a landmark destination for residents and visitors alike.
The extraordinary retail and architectural vision for Paveletska...
Bensonhurst Park
Bensonhurst Park is part of the larger Shore Parkway, an 816.1-acre collection of parks that stretches across Brooklyn and Queens. Today, the site provides a series of pathways, passive seating areas, recreational fields and a playground.
SWA/Balsley created a master plan for the redesign of the north end of the park and final design and construction do...
Riverside Park South
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 ...