DETAILS
This corporate campus is sited in a natural woodland, punctuated with ravines, dry streambeds, and the companion beech and birch stands found in this area. The facility’s size, one million square feet, is deconstructed into smaller programmatic components that are expressed in two linear building forms connected by enclosed walkways at two locations and divided by a courtyard. The building’s square footage generates considerable parking demands which have been accommodated in perimeter parking structures that have helped preserve the site’s natural wooded open space and ravines.
The courtyard garden reinterprets the site’s natural features in the form of contemporary metaphorical ravine, linking the buildings’ occupants, particularly those with central orientation, to their environment. The courtyard invites occupation for dining, conference or intimate escaped from the structured work environment. Shale ledge, pre-cast walls, and bands extend the building’s geometry into the site; intersecting curving pathways and broken shale ravine to heighten the provocative dialogue between the built and natural environment. Site grading has been directed to the ravine for stormwater management and filtration. Seasonal plantings and perennial beds add color and scale to the visual experience from within, and enrich the visitor’s stroll.
This strongly linear landscape culminates in a birch grove, from which to view or enter the natural woods and ravine just beyond. The cafeteria terrace enjoys its own space, as well as unobstructed views and access to the site’s wooded ravine, stream, and walking/jogging trails that traverse the property’s preserved wooded edges The transition from metaphor to reality compels the viewer to consider the man-made landscape’s place in the natural environment, and engages the occupant in a provocative struggle for balance.
Pacific Design Center
Once surrounded by barren plazas and impenetrable landscapes, the Pacific Design Center’s environment and image have been dramatically transformed by a complete redesign that includes parks, plazas, water features, cafes, lighting, and graphics. A two-acre open space area along San Vicente Boulevard has been transformed into a public park and gathering space,...
Intercontinental Hotel
Located in the center of the vibrant Times Square district, this new four-star hotel (one of only three in New York City) serves as the base for well-traveled tourists, businessmen and dignitaries from around the world. As a unique product of the hotel’s branding and place-making strategy, the client asked that the courtyard make a memorable first impression o...
Ballpark Village 200
SWA/Balsley has been contracted for full district-wide landscape services for this exciting new urban redevelopment, located directly across the street from Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
This downtown revitalization effort includes creating an iconic, unified district identity, strengthening pedestrian connection to the d...
Larchmont Yacht Club
Larchmont Yacht Club is the second-oldest yacht club in the United States. Conceived in 1880 on the cleft rocks of Larchmont Manor, the club has grown to a membership in excess of 600, with a continued mission to instill and enhance an interest in yachting and the spirit of sportsmanship in members and their families. Set within a mature forest of deciduous tr...