Liamuiga National Park

2015 - Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis

Liamuiga National Park

Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis

CLIENT Valmiki Kempadoo / STATUS Master Plan Completed 2015 / SIZE 378 acres / 153 hectares / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates


The vision for St Kitts National Park will become a symbol of the region’s progress and the country’s renaissance. St Kitts is leading the way to sustainable energy and other initiatives transforming communities such as improvements to infrastructure, health care initiatives, intergovernmental cooperation, and economic development strategies.  Centrally located, the National Park will become an important destination for the local community and an attraction in the tourism network of the island, while fulfilling the ecological need of replenishing the aquifer.

West 53rd Street Blue Roof

2017 - New York, NY, USA

West 53rd Street Blue Roof

New York, NY, USA

CLIENT Algin Management / COST N/A / STATUS Under Construction / SIZE 15,000 SF / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Cetra Ruddy Architecture

The New York City Building Code requires rooftops to retain water and slowly release it into the sewage system. The code is designed to alleviate overburdening sewage system with storm water. Going beyond the purely utilitarian blueroof, this garden attempt to simulate peace in a hectic inner city environment. Conceived as a designer’s blueroof, this gravel garden curates both pedestrian and water flow.

View West 53rd Street

Singapore Rail Corridor

2015 - Singapore, Singapore

Singapore Rail Corridor

Singapore, Singapore

CLIENT Urban Development Authority UDA / STATUS Competition Proposal 2015 / SIZE 24km / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, MAD Architects

The model we are proposing as an approach to the treatment of the Singapore Rail Corridor is one of integration of biological and cultural models. The introduction of the past history of the site is our way of adopting a biological model and by that uniting nature and culture. In the words of Nobel Prize Winner Francois Jacob, “living things are in fact historic structures; they are really the creation of history.” When applied to the Corridor, this framework of nature, history, culture, and structure integrates the site’s underlying ecology, industrial past, surrounding communities, and unified future. Such an integrated framework has resulted in a layered concept master plan that uses flexible infrastructure to promote movement along the corridor. Similar to the trains that once moved through the site, we see the flow of community, ecology, culture, and the city along the corridor’s 24 km as central to the plan. Our concept targets the urban and ecological nodes in which these streams of the city mingle. To expand their impact, we will use strategies, including: iconic mobile culture hubs that can host performances and installations, expansive structural and botanical hybrids, and integrated mobility networks. Central to all of these strategies and the others that follow is a sense of movement. The Rail Corridor should act as a living thing—transporting people, ideas, and wildlife throughout the country to nourish the national identity and spirit.

City Tech Courtyard

2017 - Brooklyn, NY, USA

City Tech Courtyard

Brooklyn, NY, USA

CLIENT The City University of New York, City Tech Campus / STATUS Under Construction / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Inc. / Perkins Eastman

The new LEED CUNY City Tech Academic Building in Brooklyn New York, was created as a landscape that forms a continuous surface from the sidewalk entrance through the lobby to a garden courtyard. The idea is to enliven the public spaces and create a sense of the garden in the lobby.  The design plays with a pixilated pattern of the paving that feathers into the lobby and auditorium and then fades into the courtyard. 

The pattern extrudes in the entry garden to become shallow reflecting pools made of stone that catch light when turned on and are sculptural objects when turned off. The pattern fades from paved to planting along the curtain wall edge and lobby with both exterior and interior plantings. As the pattern moves through to the courtyard- again the ratio of green to paved transforms into a lush garden with a perimeter of planting. Low water native plantings are used and materials will be chosen for their sustainability, reflectivity and efficiency. Recycled water for reflecting pools and irrigation could also be used as part of the design.  

 

Main Avenue Bridge Underpass

2015 - Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Main Avenue Bridge Underpass

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

CLIENT Downtown Cleveland Alliance / STATUS Competition finalist 2015 / SIZE 3.1 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Tillet Associates and artist Stacy Levy

The approach we took jointly as a group, Balmori Associates, Tillet Associates, and artist Stacy Levy, has been to take on specific conditions of the site and work with them to increase the site’s human use and enjoyment. One of these conditions is that of the wind blowing under the bridge, an effect of its location by the water and the bridge’s channeling effect. Another is that of the darkness under the bridge particularly at the intersection of Ninth and Main Streets. The third condition is that of the great fields of paving, which impart to the site its character of being a place only for cars, not people.

From its beginning Cleveland has been indelibly linked to both Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River both as a key piece of infrastructure fueling the economy of the city and as a defining part of the cultural identity of the city. Lake Erie also defines the environment and climate that Cleveland residents reside in. The great lakes region is a special ecological system creating micro-climates around it banks.

A series of suspended trucking tarp strips transform what was considered on the fringe of downtown into a spectacle of industry and recreation, making the invisible force of the wind visible. Lake Effect is a strategic intervention on an urban scale capable of linking to development, public spaces, and destinations in the Flats Entertainment District and Warehouse District. Lake Effect is a bright and lively gesture reflective of The Flats rich industrial heritage and responsive to the thriving waterfront district to come.

Cleveland.com

Botanical Research Institute of Texas

2011 - Fort Worth, TX, USA

Botanical Research Institute of Texas

Fort Worth, TX, USA

CLIENT Botanical Research Institute of Texas / SIZE 12 acres + Green Roof & Walls / STATUS Completed 2011 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture  /  LEED Platinum Certification

Given the heat and the continuous presence of the Texas sun, the play of light andshade became a design frame. Water management was very important in this project since droughts are followed by torrential rains.  The parking lot along with the roofs is part of an active stormwater management system and research field, an ecological working system. Water then needs to be contained, cleaned and stored for drought-period reuse.  Additionally, the water collected from roofs is stored in a cistern and reused for supplying a pond and for watering plants in a drought, and the roof. The green roof is also a niche for preserving the beautiful Fort Worth Prairie in a new form for the future. 

The main entrance, which unites the Botanical Research Institute to the Botanic Garden consists of a major display of plantings based on “Systematics,” a type of research which is the core mission of BRIT. BRIT describes systematics as research seeking an understanding of evolutionary relationships among species—in other words, looking at species not as fixed entities but as evolving systems. Another element of our design is the representation of the Fort Worth Prairie geological strata: thin limestone and sands are recast as a set of seating ledges for the outdoor education space. The sustainable image of the institute is broadcast also by the walls of the herbarium which are designed with overlapping vines.

St. Louis Riverfront Masterplan

2005 - St. Louis, MO, USA

St. Louis Riverfront Masterplan

St. Louis, MO, USA

CLIENT Great Rivers Greenway District / STATUS 2005 / SIZE 3/4 miles, 44 acres  DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, HOK Planning Group, Greenberg Consultant , CDG engineers, ABNA Engineering, Consulmar, Moffat and Nichol, Vector Communications.

In 2005, Balmori Associates was selected as lead landscape designer for the St. Louis Riverfront Project, an 80 acre site located at the foot of the Gateway Arch on the banks of the Mississippi River.  Throughout the years, The Gateway Arch has stood in celebration of St. Louis’ prominence on the banks of the Mississippi River, but access to these banks has been underwhelming.  With the St. Louis Riverfront Masterplan, Balmori Associates’ aims to reconnect people with the Mississippi by providing year round recreation on the water, an integrated bicycle and pedestrian system, a terraced riverwalk, event areas for large gatherings, and docking for local riverboats.

During the Master Planning Phase, four principles emerged as the strategies that would guide the St. Louis Riverfront Master Plan: Experience the nature and presence of the river, Create new Connections, Develop New Spaces and Complement the City.  Through site models, plans, sections and montages, Balmori Associates developed four schemes for the St. Louis Riverfront.  During the design process, Balmori Associates participated in two public forums.  Designed as an open house, the forums brought over 400 residents to evaluate each design concept.  As a result, the most ambitious scheme, Terraces & Islands, was selected.  This scheme’s terraced river edge, floating walkways and floating islands will allow for new inhabitation of the river in ways never seen before.  The project’s completion is set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the completion of the Gateway Arch.  

Artlantic

2012 - Atlantic City, NJ, USA

Artlantic

Atlantic City, NJ, USA

CLIENT Atlantic City / SIZE 7.5 acre rectangle  / STATUS Completed, 2012 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Fung Collaboratives 

Located in proximity to Atlantic City famous boardwalk, Artlantic: Wonder Park serves the community as a public venue for art and an urban amenity providing green space. The landscape complements the art, and does not compete with it. Winding paths lead the viewers through the landscape. 

Occupy the Dune

2013 - New York, NY, USA

Occupy the Dune

New York, NY, USA

CLIENT Moma PS1 (Rockaway Call for Ideas) / STATUS Winning Proposal 2013 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

In March 2013, MoMA PS1 invited artists and designers to rethink the post-Sandy Rockaways, a peninsula of Long Island located in the New York City borough of Queens. The competition sought ideas for alternative housing models, creation of social spaces, urban interventions, the rebuilding of the boardwalk, protection of the shoreline, and actions to engage local communities in the effort to rebuild from Hurricane Sandy.      

Balmori’s “Occupy the Dune” was among the twenty-five proposals exhibited on Rockaway Beach. Balmori proposed an infrastructure as the center for civic activity, capable of protecting the community while connecting it socially and ecologically. Vegetation that colonizes the dunes surface is the most critical part of the ecosystem, adding strength and stability against extreme blunt winds and storm surge. Many inhabited coastal areas have flat beaches that leave the city exposed to violent storm events. Creating dunes makes these areas more resilient, but can separate the community from the coastal landscape. The protected area formed between the primary and secondary dunes is less sensitive, allowing this interstitial space to become a linear park capable of hosting an array of civic and recreational activities.

Prefabricated concrete storm drainage boxes are used to create void spaces in the base of the dunes, leaving room for different types of programs that can evolve over time. The flexible void spaces can accommodate temporary housing for displaced residents, community activities, cabanas, cafes, retail shops, and can act as passages between city and coastal landscape.

AWARDS: Winning Proposal, Moma PS1 - Rockaway Call for Ideas

PRESS: ArchDaily

Brookfield Place

New York, New York, USA

Brookfield Place

New York, New York, USA

CLIENT Brookfield Properties  / STATUS Completed 2015 / SIZE 2 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates

Located in the heart of Lower Manhattan, the Brookfield Place Plaza is centered on a critical east-west pedestrian link connecting the World Trade Center memorial site to Battery City Park and the Hudson River. The plaza acts as an arrival for the southern part of the Brookfield Place complex as well as an urban terminus to the northern point of South End Avenue.  The plaza is bound on the western edge by Pumphouse Park, colloquially known as the Oval, a popular green enclave surrounded by cherry trees that creates a spectacle of blooms in the spring. Despite its strategic location, the plaza suffered from a lack of continuity and identity rendering the space little more than a cul-de-sac. Several problems plagued the space: a lack of ground plane continuity that was dominated by the vehicular traffic pattern, an abrupt transition between the park and the plaza, and obscured site lines across the plaza.

The intent for the design of the plaza was to create a new unified plan by extending a consistent paving through the entire space while eliminating the curbs that fracture the space and inscribe the vehicular traffic patterns.  As part of the work, the traffic pattern was altered for better vehicular efficiency causing the previously symmetrical relationship with the front entry and center line of the road to be shifted, creating two conflicting geometries. Balmori proposed three rotating vegetative planes emerging from the ground all centered on a different axis to reconcile the old and new geometries. Balmori also proposed moveable furniture to provide maximum flexibility for tenants of the ground floor space in the future.

Although many design proposals were not realized due to budgetary constraint developments some simple changes on site have made the plaza feel distinctly open, creating a fluidity between the plaza and adjacent greenspaces. Both the widening of pedestrian space and the removal of the tall fence which once divided the space have created a much more open plaza with clear views to the Hudson River.

Rehabilitating MAPO Oil Depot

2014 - Seoul, Korea

Rehabilitating MAPO Oil Depot

Seoul, Korea

CLIENT Seoul Metropolitan Government / STATUS Competition, 2014 / SIZE 75 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, N.E.E.D. Architecture / PHOTOS Balmori Associates, N.E.E.D. Architecture

The competition called for transforming an industrial relic into a cultural venue with specific programs in mind. As a deserted relic, the site lacks accessibility and urban connections, which are two pre-requisites for successful cultural intervention. The proposal tackles these two basic problems both directly and indirectly by creating resilient and open infrastructure.

Giant oil tanks in man-made craters, only reachable by climbing steep steps on a hill, are not fit for public use unless drastic occupancy control and safety measures are deployed. We propose bold earthwork, cutting away the front section of rock craters to allow for easy access and tucked-in service spaces. Cuts will surgically limit the area where the least amount of excavation occurs and the resultant crushed stones are recycled to pave a new porous parking lot. Repurposed steel plates from the tank #3 compose concrete formwork of the new retaining wall against the cuts.

Programmatic resiliency is built into the refurbished tanks. Except for the tank #1, which is preserved in its original state, other tanks are revised in such a way that, with use of heavy gauge materials and simple modifications, they can perform with greater flexibility and durability. Centrifugal plan with hollowed-out core allow for hosting various types of public events in different magnitude, overcoming the inherent disadvantage of contextually disconnected site through contingent adaptability.

Parque Del Rio

Medellin, Colombia

Parque Del Rio

Medellin, Colombia

CLIENT China Vanke Co.Ltd / STATUS Proposal / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Studio Area 4

Imagine a city that takes its river channeled, it revives two water systems, crosses and recruza with beautiful bridges intertwined with parks in its entirety and intertwines all social groups equally at the same time. Imagine that and think if any other city capable of creating this intense set of transport, water, park and bridges; all twisted together and made one set. Venice and invented a creative solution to their situation that became the world's most beautiful city, Medellin has the opportunity to become a unique and beautiful city overhauling the things you need without wasting anything.

Meditation Room: Reflecting on Horizon

2015 - ATLANTA, GEORGIA

MEDITATION ROOM: REFLECTING ON HORIZON

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

The horizon line is one crucial reference when experiencing landscape. What distinguishes a city from all other places are the multiple horizon lines stacked over one another, receding or advancing towards you, creating an effect of constriction and enclosure. The search for the sense of an open horizon is partly satisfied in an urban park: perhaps the real pleasure an urban park provides is not through its vegetation, as assumed, but its release from the constricted horizon line.

In Meditation Room: Reflecting on Horizon, commissioned by the City of Atlanta for ELEVATE 2015, the reflection of the sky and the earth introduces a new clear fabricated horizon in an otherwise congested urban panorama. Members of the public are invited to come in for a five minute meditation, a pause, to connect with the sense of an expansive horizon in the smallest of spaces.

Diana Balmori wrote in Drawing and Reinventing Landscape (Wiley, 2014) that “Landscape architecture is an art of peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is essential for understanding and appreciating landscape; central vision alone cannot capture it.”

Reflecting on Horizon is part of an ongoing series of experimental art installations from Balmori that explore themes such as peripheral vision by creating meditative experiences in the urban realm.

Balmori Associates completed its first meditation room, Meditation Room: Horizon presented by The Drawing Center for the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival 2015. In September, “Making Horizon” opened at the 10th China (Wuhan) International Garden Expo. Read more

Play Park

2015 - Dublin, Ireland

Play Park

Dublin, Ireland

CLIENT The Matheson Foundation and Dublin City Council / STATUS Competition - highly commended, 2015 / SIZE 3.75 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, John McLaughlin Architects

Play Park is designed as an inclusive space, accessible to all and full of attractive programs for people of every interest and age groups to enjoy. Teenagers can hang out at the skate park behind the berm; Parents with strollers can relax and enjoy a coffee with friends watching their kids climb, slide and roll down the rubber landforms; thrill seekers can bike through the bumpy BMX circuit; explorers can adventure in the enchanted forest and the bioswale to watch and learn about the local wildlife.

Intimate moments of tranquility and repose can be experienced at the flower garden and on the rolling hills. Spectacle and action can be enjoyed looking at the skate bowls and BMX tracks from the safe main path. For special events Play Park will transform into a venue buzzing with life and activity, the main open lawn becoming a large performance space accommodating from 100 to 500 people.

The programs and activity of Play Park are concentrated and organized along the main path that runs the length of the site.

Greenwich Residence

2017 - Old Greenwich, Connecticut, USA

Greenwich Residence

Old Greenwich, Connecticut, USA

CLIENT Private / STATUS Under construction / SIZE 0.75 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates,  Joeb Moore and Partners / PHOTOS Balmori Associates,  Joeb Moore and Partners

In 2012 during Hurricane Sandy a major fire ripped through a small residential community in Greenwich, Connecticut destroying several homes. With that the owners of one of the homes that had been completely destroyed, Balmori were commissioned with Joeb Moore & Partners Architects to design a fully integrated architectural and landscape environment. Embodying the latest innovations in sustainable design, the passive-house standard design for the modern home is complemented by a green roof and rainwater management garden that retains all of the on-site run-off rainwater.

The long rectangular lot is unusually special in that is book-ended by private lanes at either end. The primary concept for the design of the landscape and the house was to create a long linear path that connects the rear access lane up onto the pool terrace, through the house and down through a terraced natural meadow that overlooks the serene long island sound. The walkway is designed with a custom pattern to emphasize the linearity of the path and this is complimented by a row of gingko trees running alongside it.

 The walkway crosses over a variety of landscape features that showcase the beauty and functionality that landscape design has to offer. A small courtyard separating the house from the garage contains a miniature Japanese rock garden with a specimen dwarf pine. The view of the long island sound from the living room and outdoor dining patio is framed by a heath and heather garden with a wild variety of species. The landscape also has productive elements with a small herb garden set on elevated planters and a small orchard of cherry trees set in a natural meadow. At the end of the site a bioswale is designed to retain run-off rainwater from the site and is planted with a variety of white and blue flowering rain garden plants that offer seasonal interest.

The lightweight timber clad house is set in a landscape that compliments the architecture by using natural cleft bluestone for the low horizontal terrace walls on which the house rests and strategically positioning mature maple trees around the house to control views. The roof of the house is covered in an intensive mix of evergreen sedums and native grasses.

Torre Iberdrola

2012 - Bilbao, Spain

Torre Iberdrola

Bilbao, Spain

CLIENT Iberdrola / STATUS Competition Winner, Completed 2012 / SIZE 300,000 m2 / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

The winter garden functions as the lobby and reception area of the Iberdrola Tower. To enhance the character of the space, we selected three ancient olive trees. These trees, treated as sculptures, will emerge from a landscape composed by desert flowering plants.

The public plaza around the tower has been designed over a submerged parking garage. This roof garden reads as the continuation of the surrounding landscape of the Campa de los Ingleses Park, also designed by Balmori Associates.

The tower is LEED certified and all the water arriving to the site will be treated. There is a bioswale surrounding the tower to collect, filter and clean the water arriving to the site.

Hermas Development

2017 - Doha, Qatar

Hermas Development

Doha, Qatar

CLIENT Hermas Investment Company / SIZE  10,000 m2 / STATUS Under Construction / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, One Lux Studio

The Hermas Development will feature four office buildings organized around a central courtyard. Each building has retail on the ground floor, nine office floors, and a tenth roof level amenities connecting all four buildings. The roof level amenities house the Al Kamal headquarters, a Spa, Gymnasium and a restaurant for fine dining. Sitting on a site area of 15,220 m2 and rising 47 meters in height Hermas Development will be LEED Certified and have a 5 star QSAS rating.  

An Islamic pattern is reinterpreted through the site.  Modified, scaled, simplified, the pattern becomes at times the layout of the courtyard, at others, a paving pattern, the edge of the water feature, and benches.

The shade, the sound of the water, the vegetation and the color palette will provide a sense respite and freshness as soon as one enters the courtyard. Materials with warm colors are selected for the streetscape and cool color ones such as greens and greys for the courtyard.

The planting palette for the courtyard showcases native tall vertical palms and acacias well-known for their horizontal canopy. The sun study of the courtyard maps areas of sun exposure suitable for planting trees, and consequently where the earth berms up to allow for planting depth.

The terraces on the 4th and 10th floors feature pixel like planters allowing for more intimate spaces where one can sit alone or in a small gathering. The terraces of the 4th floor have a white, a red, a blue and a yellow garden; the ones on the 10th floor have a scent garden, an edible garden and an orange grove. The vegetated roof of the 9th floor displays arabesques of sedums.

 

City-County Building Plaza

2014 - Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

City-County Building Plaza

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

CLIENT Central Indiana Community Foundation, The City of Indianapolis, Department of Metropolitan Development / STATUS Competition finalist 2014 / SIZE 1.94 acres / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates / Kevin Roche Dinkeloo Associates

The overall landscape design is to construct a system which takes cues from natural processes and makes them visible in an urban context. Three landscape systems define the organization of the plaza: the terraced rain gardens of the Ribbon, the sculpted native meadow of the Berm and the perimeter landscape.

The terraced rain gardens of the Ribbon create an occupiable interface between structure and landscape. Storm water is collected and then pumped up the Ribbon structure which has been designed to filter the water through a series of terraced rain gardens with a strategic native plant palette. The filtered water is then retained for site irrigation and water features in a large cistern at the base of the Ribbon. The planting on the ribbon creates a rich and unique experience as visitors walk along a tree-shaded and richly planted environment opening to a dramatic view towards the heart of downtown Indianapolis.

The sculpted native meadow of the Berm is planted with species that require no fertilizers or pesticides. The meadow is mown to provide an open lawn for visitors. Rather than using turf or “Industrial Lawn”, a “Freedom Lawn” introduces various grass species, clover and wildflowers that fix nitrogen and reduce the need for pesticides. Seven mature live Lindens are retained in the mounded site topography which brings green space to the public.

Canopy trees from the existing plaza such as Maples, Magnolias, Crabapples, and Viburnums are saved for reuse on site, with the addition of a formal grove of Amelanchier trees at the entrance of the CCB. The perimeter landscape creates intimate spaces for café seating and defines the center of the plaza as a flexible event space.

The Gwynns Fall Trail Masterplan

1995 - Baltimore, MD, USA

The Gwynns Fall Trail Masterplan

Baltimore, MD, USA

CLIENT The Trust for Public Land, City of Baltimore Department of Recreation of Parks / STATUS Completed 1995 / SIZE 14 miles / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Meg Webster, Jonathan Fishman Architects, Edward Orser, Paul Barten, Kirsten MacDougall

Restoration of a stream established connections between the diverse neighborhoods along its path. The Gywnns Falls Trail Masterplan project is a response to community interest in restoring the Gywnns Falls Stream Ecosystem, which had been damaged over time by industrial pollution, illegal dumping, and neglect. The masterplan drew public attention to the stream and its watershed by outlining revitalization strategies, which included educational activities for area public schools and annual public celebrations. The design team consulted with citizens from 16 neighborhoods, 7 Baltimore city agencies and departments, as well as 47 public and private organizations and institutions.

The trail has seven separate segments running through various geographic and cultural areas of Baltimore, Maryland. The proposals were developed with respect to the particular terrain, vegetation, and cultural context of each trail segment.  The masterplan was a comprehensive study outlining recommended designs for trail routes, safety, signage, planting schemes, ecological restoration, and historical features management. In addition, the masterplan explored ethical and environmental procedures for its design and construction, namely eliminating the use of pollutants. This practice helped to produce jobs for the surrounding communities and was integrated into the educational process of the community.

The Gwynns Falls Trail vision was built on an earlier vision created for open public space in Baltimore.  In 1902, the Baltimore Municipal Art Society commissioned the Olmsted brothers to design a masterplan for Baltimore parks. Completed in 1904, the Olmsted Report recommended that the city acquire three principal stream valleys to protect the watershed from future development; it also envisioned a network of stream valley parks. The Olmsted Report was a starting place for Balmori Associates' evaluation process for urban open space because of its foresight, broad vision and its understanding of parks as an integral part of our cities.