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.
Perk Park
Originally completed in 1972, Perk Park is a vestige of IM Pei’s urban renewal plan. It was built in an era when the street was seen as a menace so parks turned inward. Rolling berms around the edges and sunken areas in the middle, filled with concrete retaining walls, reflected that era. Not surprisingly, the park fell into decline; abandoned by the neighborh...
Residences at W New York Downtown
The Residences at W New York Downtown is located in lower Manhattan. The at-grade public plaza creates an urban space with a food kiosk surrounded by a large raised wood deck with table, chairs, and built-in custom stainless steel benches and bar seating along the perimeter. A series of interplaying IPE wood and pre-cast concrete benches creates seating and co...
Faria Lima
A new office tower, theater and café pavilion known as Alameda is being built in the high end district of downtown Sao Paulo; the centerpiece of the site design is the Alameda civic plaza. Lifted gently above the street level, four generous steps invite visitors to enter and explore the plaza while branded light pylons at all major entrances serve as place mar...
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...