The landscape design for Stanford West Housing creates a lush and inviting place for residents, complete with recreation trails, parks and play areas, while also conserving the site’s environmentally sensitive characteristics. Special emphasis was placed on maintaining the riparian corridor with native planting and the site’s archaeologically sensitive areas were handled with care. The project’s internal street grid, architectural and landscape elements are designed to recall the traditions of existing older neighborhoods in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Built in the Sand Hill corridor, the housing accommodates employees of Stanford, the medical center and the Research Park.
Work attributed to SWA/Balsley principal John Wong and his team with SWA Group.
Martha Stewart Summer Residence
When first approached, the property looked as if very little had changed in eighty years. Everything about it reflected an interest in summer breezes and beaches rather than labor-intensive gardening. In dramatic contrast, the new owner’s primary interest was in entertaining within a landscaped environment.
The final plan reconciles competing space requ...
101 Warren
Perched atop a two-story structure, towered over by a connecting residential high rise and surrounded by studio apartments, this unique urban pine forest stands in a bed of low-hanging fog and reaches to the clear skies above. One hundred and one white pines, planted in a loose formation of elliptical mounds, seem cast adrift in a sea of washed river stone. Dw...
Stanford Toyon Hall
Toyon Hall, a significant historic building originally designed by Bakewell and Brown Architects in 1922, is a three-story structure centered around a magnificent formal courtyard with arcades and arches. The purpose of the project was to preserve, maintain and enhance the building and site. Our scope of work included evaluation of existing site conditions and...
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...