SWA

This post is a love letter to spring, which begins today. While Instagram fills with pictures of cherry blossoms and picnics, landscape architects are attuned to a wave of ecological processes triggered by warmer temperatures, many barely perceptible to the eye—but unmistakable if you pause to use other senses. Underground microbial communities are reawakened by moisture, breaking down organic matter and fueling root growth. Migrating neotropical birds arrive in waves, dispersing seeds. Insects reemerge, driving pollination, decomposition, soil health, and forming the base of complex food webs. The landscapes we design are transformed by moisture and temperature, too, producing a new world of texture, sound, scent, and sometimes taste. To mark the 2025 equinox, we traced a few of these seasonal harbingers through “the other four senses” beyond sight. There’s a picture of cherry blossoms at the end.

Starting the week off strong with our first Award Winner Spotlight! The Alexandria Center? for Advanced Technologies at The Woodlands ?? Sustainable Adaptive Reuse Check out what one of our judge's had to say! Read more about the project ?? The Alexandria Center? for Advanced Technologies at The Woodlands is a one-of-a-kind, amenity-rich multi-tenant campus in the heart of the Greater Houston life science cluster. The campus is home to the first purpose-built, cost-effective Class A laboratory infrastructure with move-in-ready lab suites and shared amenity spaces, including indoor and outdoor fitness and wellness spaces and conference and event spaces. Developer | Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Architect | Gensler Landscape Architect | SWA General Contractor | DPR Construction Civil Engineer | Walter P Moore Structural Engineer | IMEG MEP Engineer | Wylie Consulting Engineers Commissioning Firm | GMC Commissioning IT Consultant | Metro Networks Consulting Inc Lighting Consultant | HLB Lighting Design Project Management Firm | Intersect Management

Norton Rose Fulbright Tower and its stepped terraces were featured in the Texas Society of Architects 2025 Winter issue. The project, designed by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group and developed by Skanska, with SWA as the landscape architect, neighbors Downtown Houston's largest park, Discovery Green. "A standout feature of the Norton Rose Fulbright Tower is its terraces," Rodrigo Gallardo writes. "These terraces bring elements of Houston’s natural environment up into the sky, encouraging people to step outside and appreciate the city from new perspectives. The ability to experience different natural settings within the building itself enhances the overall experience for tenants and visitors." Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/eQcr9T_X

Tucked at the base of Hicks Mountain, one of the tallest peaks in Marin County, a 845-acre plot bore the imprint of its past—decades of cattle grazing gradually eroding the land, depleting native vegetation, and altering the hydrology of a fragile watershed feeding into the Nicasio Reservoir. When the property's owners sought to restore the site, they approached it not just as a design challenge but as an opportunity to mend the land, framing an ethos around the question: how can working landscapes be reimagined to support both human life and ecosystem health? Leading this process, SWA primarily focused on watershed restoration—spanning a diverse range of grassland, wetland, and riparian habitat—and configured landscapes surrounding the main residence, ranch manager's house, barn, and bridge to prevent future impacts to the stream. At the heart of the residence, a central courtyard softens the sharp temperature swings of West Marin. A raised hot and cold pool, inspired by the forms of spring boxes and water troughs, acts as both an elegant focal point and a gathering place—an understated nod to the site’s agrarian past, reimagined for a more ecologically sensitive future.

On April 9, tune in for a Landscape Architecture Foundation webinar with SWA Director of Climate Strategy Jonah Susskind, exploring the future of energy corridors. Learn more and register below:

In today's Los Angeles Times, SWA's Director of Climate Strategy Jonah Susskind worked with David Wharton, wildfire expert Max Moritz, and the Times' graphics team to visualize spatial strategies to reduce fire risk in California communities—many adapted directly from "Playbook for the Pyrocene," a 2023 XL Lab publication authored by Jonah. https://lnkd.in/ewDSvNy2

At the northern end of Kyoto, Japan’s cultural capital, a 100-year-old elementary school sat vacant for years at one of the city’s three Edo-era entrances. In feudal times, it was a rest stop for weary travelers. Today, the school is transformed into a dual-purpose property: its central building functioning as a boutique hotel with sweeping views of the Higashiyama Mountains and an adjacent wing preserved as a community-oriented space with a soccer field and public courtyard. Nestled in the heart of the Higashiyama District, just minutes away from the National Museum of Modern Art and dozens of UNESCO World Heritage sites, the hotel features a fusion restaurant, onsen-style spa, and traditional craft shop. Drawing inspiration from the area’s layered cultural history, stone roads, and ita-kura wood-frame architecture, the courtyard radiates from a perfectly round pond. Underlaid with black stone, the pond is designed as a “moon mirror” referencing lunar cycles and eclipses, emphasized by an offset crescent of nested lighting in the evening. Visitors can bathe their feet in a sunken pool within the crescent, its clean lines contrasting with rough-hewn boulders placed carefully throughout the yard.?An adjacent reflecting pond conceals a traditional Japanese tea house operated by Gion Tsujiri, a local establishment founded in 1860.

Despite the chilly weather, construction at Southern Gateway Park remains on track! Here’s the latest progress from the site: ??Metal stud framing is underway. ??Deck waterproofing is complete. ??Soil and irrigation installation has begun. ??Utility building roof installation is in progress. ??Sidewalk and pavement concrete pours are ongoing. ??Concrete placement continues at the amphitheater and Texas Capital Landing. ??Geofoam fill installation continues and is expected to be 100% complete by mid-March. We’re excited to see the park taking shape! Stay tuned for more updates.?

For the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University's first ground-up project since its creation in 1954, SWA and Olson Kundig took inspiration "from the campus’s midcentury modernism," writes The Architect's Newspaper. Seamlessly integrating new facilities and outdoor spaces with the original Thomas Church landscape and William Wurster buildings, the overall site is reorganized to encourage collaboration and interaction between the various disciplines housed within—legal scholars, humanists, public policy practitioners, philosophers, and technical experts. Its completion also marks the latest milestone in a 40+ year collaboration between SWA and Stanford to revive and enhance its 8,180-acre campus through over 300 individual projects. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/dSADYNj7

Last fall, SWA, PWP Landscape Architecture, Sasaki, and LandDesign were invited to participate in a design charette to reimagine Farragut Square, McPherson Square, and BLM Plaza in Washington DC. Join the webinar this coming Monday to learn about our exciting ideas for revitalizing the Historic Green Triangle in Downtown DC!