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Being the Change

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”  – The Philosophy of Andy Warhol A new generation of young adults would agree, according to the NPR’s series on the...

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Landscape Architecture Magazine –“A Feast of Ideas”

We were recently in LAM in an article titled ‘A Feast of Ideas’ that questioned how “landscape architecture and the food supply fit together”. This is an excerpt of the published piece: “A recent study...

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ASLA 2012 Professional Award for Agriculture Plan

SWA San Francisco received an Honor Award in the Planning and Analysis Category for ‘Nanhu: Farm Town in the Big City’. An integrated master plan that considers agriculture, villages, waterways and...

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Lands End: A Cultural Landscape in Evolution

San Francisco is known for its spectacular scenery and proximity to some of the country’s most beautiful recreational areas. One of the city’s secret gems is located along its rocky northwestern edge...

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Dominguez Enhancement & Engagement Project (The DEEP)

This month, a pro-bono project that our Los Angeles office has championed for more than three years of community effort, fundraising, permitting, city process and construction hurdles, ended with a...

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Giving Pedestrians A Little Respect: Traffic Calming

Traffic calming can give pedestrians a leg up in the car-centric city – and driving should be actively discouraged. This is part of a series about the importance of small urban elements that can have...

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Future Infrastructures: Katy Trail

The Katy Trail is a recent Rails-to-Trails project transforming an abandoned rail corridor into a hugely popular pedestrian-bicycle corridor linking over 20 neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas. As a...

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Building Resilience

I am intrigued by the human resilience angle in the case for better urban design implied by Eric Klinenberg in his article in the New Yorker. In the article ‘Adaptation: How can cities be...

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Giving Away Free Trees

Apple, Peach, Apricot, Plum and Nectarine! On Saturday, January 26th, we had the opportunity to participate in a Fruit Tree give-away with TreePeople and the Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) in...

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Recognizing the Designers Behind the Golden Gate Parks

San Francisco is a fantastic place to be a dad, a cyclist, and a designer and an advocate for landscapes. Our vibrant and tightly-packed North Beach neighborhood is offset by the not-too-far-away wide...

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When Infrastructure Isn’t Just Black And White: Imagining Better Alternatives...

What if the Keystone XL Pipeline project wasn’t a black-or-white issue? In our Houston office, we’ve been hearing a lot about both sides of the Pipeline debate—and after several in-office conversations...

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We’re joining the 1% program!

Over the past year, a group of designers from all of our offices have been slowly building up a formal library of all of our various pro-bono projects we’ve been a part of over the years. While doing...

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NETWORK and NATURE: Creating Community Green Spaces within Los Angeles

Created by of the founders of GOOD, the Goldhirsh Foundation supports innovators through grants whose ideas can shape and change the world.   This year the Goldhirsh Foundation is tackling a new...

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Canoes and Views in Buffalo Bayou

On March 16, 2013, my boyfriend Eric and I embarked on an unusual Saturday morning. We’re a moderately active couple, but we’re full of athletic ambition, so we signed up for the Buffalo Bayou Regatta...

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Protecting Our Coasts and Cities: Why We Need To Develop Long-Term, Resilient...

Long after the media stops talking about the damage done from hurricanes like Sandy, Ike, and Katrina, in each of our communities, we are left with the task of rebuilding our coastlines and cities to...

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Designing in the Public Interest: Six Ways We Get Better With Pro Bono Work

Designing in the public interest is often challenging–and controversial. How do you know when to do public interest work and when pro-bono efforts are going towards greater good? In our office with the...

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Corporate Campus 3.0: Understanding Cultural Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism

What is the future of the corporate campus? As designers work with the next generation of real estate leaders, I had a chance to write about the changes happening in the design world and what...

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Behind the Scenes: Designing Jackson Hill Bridge, The Next Pedestrian Bridge...

What does it take to create a new link within an existing community? For our Houston designers, they have been hard at work for more than the past decade in creating a city-wide green system of Bayous...

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Returning Streets to People: 5 Tips for Going Car-Free

  Cities today are mostly car-centric landscapes.  Sidewalks place pedestrians directly beside exhaust-spewing vehicles with little to no buffer.  High-speed thoroughfares or highways often dissect...

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Public Space in the Office

Public Space is a place for community as well as a topic for discourse between designers and patrons. This duality may be seen in our most recent entrance wall installation, a parametric sculpture...

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