Project Details

selected projects only

2010 - Present

Cayala, Guatemala

This project was designed to be a replication of a 16th Century Spanish Colonial town in both its urban plan and architecture. Swift and Associates were hired to work with a block plan by Leon Krier to design public thoroughfares and public space. The project is largely constructed. The work resulted in the creation of a chapter in our book (in process) entitled “Picturesque and Medieval streets”. Mr. Krier reviewed and approved the design.

David Town Center, Panama

Moule and Polyzoides hired Swift and Associates to design thoroughfare configurations and develop a Traffic Impact Analysis for the project. This compact, mixed use and walkable greenfield development will serve a large population within the region. The layout was intended to provide interesting visual experiences through architectural terminus and a “cranky” central armature.

Dona Ana County, New Mexico

Placemakers LLC was contracted to write a code for the entire County. Swift and Associates was asked to analyze the many Pueblo’s and villages within the County to develop an understanding of the public space vernacular so that the code could reflect this historic standard. Not only did we determine typical spatial forms and configurations, but thorough fare materials were classified as to their context and applied to the code.

Freeport, long Island, New York

The Village of Freeport wished to retrofit their downtown into a more mixed and walkable urban environment along with an extended corridor northward from the Long Island Rail Road station. This complex existing environment required detailed analytical work for the existing conditions and the development of specific retrofit of the areas within the Rights-Of-Way. Traffic volumes were relatively high and there was a significant pedestrian volume to be accommodated. Traffic circulation rerouting, pedestrian amenities and other improvements were especially needed near and within the station area.

Frisco, Texas

The City of Frisco wanted to enhance the area around its civic area because it largely contained empty lots and parking. Swift and Associates were hired to develop a semi-classical approach to thoroughfare and public space design. The image adjacent is an example of just two of those areas, one containing a plaza and the other an “oval about”. The plans included with design of a completely integrated grid that connected important civic buildings with proposed residential and light retail.

Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas

The College wanted to develop land easterly of the campus in a mixed use, walkable fashion that was accessible to the college by students. The existing arterial streets experienced long traffic queue’s and fast traffic in non-rush-hour periods. The prime contractor, Duany Platter-Zyberk, hired Swift and Associates to help with this situation. We designed two roundabouts and modifications to the street sections to create a safer pedestrian experience and shorten intersection delay times. The project successfully did so.

Lafayette, Louisiana

The Downtown Development Agency, at the request of City Council, wanted to perform a Right Sizing of Congress Street for several miles as it entered downtown. This corridor did not have excessive traffic warranting the 5 lane section as it existed and had fast traffic and a relatively hostile pedestrian environment. Swift and Associates was tasked with objective of restriping and designing one roundabout along this corridor while avoiding larger capital, physical, improvements. This project was completed in 2017 and had three developers interested in building new projects along this corridor. It has been well received by the public.

Complete Streets Master Plan, Lake Charles, Louisiana

The City of Lake Charles was divided by a north-south arterial (Lake Shore Drive and Veterans Parkway). The west side contained the civic center, massive parking and public amenities along the shore of Lake Charles. The east side contained the downtown in a robust mixed use state that also included important civic buildings. Duany Platter-Zyberk was hired to do a master plan for this entire area, but there was no detailed plan for their street system. Swift and Associates was hired to develop a Complete Streets Master Plan for both the eastern and western portions of the City. This was completed in early 2017 and the city restriped Lake Shore Drive as a pilot program shortly afterward.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

Placemakers was contracted to develop a masterplan for downtown Las Cruces and hired Swift and Associates for public space and thoroughfare design. This area included weakly detailed “Paseo’s” for pedestrian traffic between the main street and adjacent arterial one way streets. The Paseo’s became known as Calliesitas and we saw an opportunity to convert them into something like Woonerf’s (Home Zones) as they appear in Amsterdam. This would allow cross town traffic albeit at very low speeds controlled by design. The old maps and plans for the town showed them as streets to begin with and the public wanted more of a robust street grid in the area. We thought that a pedestrian dominant environment was appropriate here and the plan was adopted.

Mobile, Alabama

Duany Platter-Zyberk was hired to create a master plan for downtown Mobile. Swift and Associates was hired to provide transportation and public space design. We made a number of recommendations for pedestrian access and circulation including a proposal to stop short circuiting of traffic to reverse-in parking around the central square, better pedestrian connectivity in the North West portion of town, pedestrian access around the Interstate highway, internal traffic control reconfigurations and parking strategies.

2009

Bawwabat, al Sharq, Saudi Arabia

The al-Oula company of Dammam, Saudi Arabia ownes land that will be used for the development of the new town center for the city. We were asked to assist Duany Platter-Zyberk in a charrette to detail the design.. We advised on many engineering issues including the design of public space, roundabouts in congested areas, preliminary trip generation and introduction of engineering techniques for the calculation of internal trip capture. In addition, access to the existing highway was a challange, but was agreed to by the Director of Transportation for the region.

East Los Angles TOD

The County of East Los Angeles contracted with Moule and Polyzoides for a masterplan for several Transit Oriented Developments in the County (3rd Avenue Gold Line extension). Swift and Associates were contracted to assist in the design process through a charrette, and then develop a Traffic Impact Analysis for the project. We will also follow up with assistance in the development of an EIR for the project. This is a significantly important project for the Los Angeles area and will introduce sustainable development along a major transit line.

Midlothian, Virginia

The Bon Secour organization's hospital in Midlothian, Virginia, approached Duany Platter-Zyberk as they wanted to develop a master plan for an urban village around their Saint Francis Hospital. We were the engineers for the charrette offering recommendations for streets, transit and offsite recommendations for extension of a possible town center based on New urbanist principals.

2008

Downey, California

The old NASA site in Downey is now a working contract studio that was slated for redevelopment essentially as a regional mall. Moule and Polyzoides were asked to conduct a charrette to reconstruct the site into a town center. We were responsible for the traffic and parking analysis. A pallette of streets was developed along with an ananlysis of parking scenario's taking into account shared and park once models.

Silvertip, Canmore, Alberta, Canada

Contracted by Stone Creek Properties, this medieval design by Geoff Dyer and Jaydean Boldt presents several challanges with respect to fire access, unconventional street geometrics and steep terrain. We are working on the Traffic Impact Analysis, Parking study, fire access plan and civil engineering issues.

Sachse, Texas

The charrette run by Gateway Planning Group was tasked to run a public charrette for a site in Sachse, Texas. Swift and Associates was responsible for the transportation element and did urban design for a church owned propery adjacent to the project. We were able to identify some possible regional solutions, modifications to local major arterial streets, propose cross sections for project streets and submit an urban plan for the church site.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

We have been retained to work on the transportation elements for this project designed by Duany Platter Zyberk Architects, Miami, Florida. There are a number of issues related to traffic including trip generation and street design that are in the process of being worked on.

Home Town, North Richland Hills, Texas

A revision to the plan by DPZ Architects raised some questions about the traffic volumes and street configurations. We were contracted to work with the developer's consultant to introduce data and a narrative describing the advantages of walkable communities.

2005 — 2007

Abu Dhabi

In a weeklong charrette with Nelson Nygaard, we did the urban design for 2 kilometers of Al Salaam Street showing the potential for infill with neighborhood structure, public space and embracing the new boulevard. The recommendations of the charrete were to abandon all the in progress plans for several highways in Abu Dhabi and, instead, having a network of grand avenues and boulevards. The Crown Prince accepted these recommendations. The results should help with establishing Abu Dhabi as an iconic Arab city in the Middle East.

Dubai, Palm Jebel Ali

Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed wanted sustainable development for the Palm rather then encourage another recreation oriented development. The charrette team under Robertsday (Australia) redesigned the Palm into three town centers and several neighborhoods. We organized the transportation elements, established a street hierarchy, proposed transit design and did the design detailing for one of the plaza/square town centers in AutoCAD.

Dubai, Waterfront — Phase III

As a continuation of the vision established by the Crown Prince, and again with Robertsday, we worked on the Waterfront project that established two urban villages in a walkable, mixed use fashion. We were responsible for reviewing and revising the local street standards and applying it in a hierarchal fashion to the project design. We did the design detailing for the entire project in AutoCAD along with design revision to one of the village plaza's. Transit schemes were proposed and recommendations for area-wide master transportation planning were proposed.

University of Salahadin, Erbil, Iraq

Design was completed for Salahadin University housing in a mixed use, walkable form with a village center and civic buildings. The University is trying to obtain financing and develop a mortgage program. Under Islamic Law, the structuring of mortgages becomes somewhat complex. The project included preliminary architecture as mentioned below.

Architectural design prototypes, North Iraq

The vernacular architecture of North Iraq was studied and incorporated into plans for 13 detached residential units. This was done with the expert help of Douglas Duany. The designs were broken down into three types and several floor plates. These building can be used for most public and private projects and are sensitive to urban context within their Transect Zones. We also developed a full matrix of building types with assignment to Transect Zones. A history of residential type was documented and laid out a clear pattern of the evolution of private residential space in the region.

An Urban typological study, North Iraq uban typological study

An analysis was done on several urban centers north of Erbil so that we could get an understanding of the amount of agricultural land needed to sustain hamlets, villages and town centers. We also constructed a map establishing existing neighborhood structure for the purpose of identifying urbanized areas that would be ready for expansion. A program for introducing new agriculturally oriented jobs was developed.

Analysis and development of a regional medieval urban typology, North Iraq

The Council of Ministries, government staff and local people seemed interested in the reintroduction of historical urban patterns. We developed this prototype as an example of what could be achieved with respect to the automobile, modern construction materials and infrastructure needs. It was well received and will be used in private development as funding becomes available.

Presentations to the Council of Ministries and Prime Minister's advisors, North Iraq

Three presentations were made to the Council of Ministries and Prime Minister's advisors. Each presentation was approximately three hours and covered a broad range of subjects including the following:
- The urban to rural transect and its calibration to North Iraq
- Reintroduction of the regional vernacular architecture and its techniques
- Economic development opportunities and recommendations for shifting budget monies to more productive efforts
- Traditional urban form and sustainable patterns of development
- Prototypical urban patterns based on Islamic Law, ancient codes and local context
- Suggestions for revisions to banking practice
- Building scale solutions with respect to Sharia Law
- Investigations into the use of alternative sources of energy
- Introduction of a more affective transit system
- Regional planning techniques and identification of important issues to address prior to starting a Master Plan
- Sustainable transportation techniques
- Suggestions for political processes that advance long term planning goals

These ideas were warmly welcomed and some of them were implemented immediately.

Pre-2005

Selby Property, Buena Vista, Colorado

Swift and Associates attended a charrette held in November, 2003, run by Dover-Kohl. Currently we are developing the engineering documents for submittal to the Town. The clients wanted a green project and have included site and building criteria that are state-of-the-art for environmental protection and mitigation. We are designing a Woonerf (pron. voh-nerf) which is a pedestrian dominant narrow street for part of the project. In addition, site drainage will include an infiltration trench for cleansing the storm water runoff before entering the Arkansas River. A roundabout at the north end of the project will act as visual terminus for Main Street and act as an entry to the site. We hope to have the project under construction this year.

EDO, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Redesign of Broadway and Central corridors is led by Moule and Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists. We attended the charrette and proposed several design elements including two roundabouts to reduce required number of traffic lanes. This will provide space for possible future fixed rail transit. The confined street width still allows for plenty of space for wide sidewalks and pedestrian amenities.

Potters House, Dallas, Texas

A New Urbanist community developed by Arcadia Realty (Bill Gietema), Potters house fronts on a State thoroughfare slated to be a four lane higher speed conveyance. We introduced a Road Diet by reducing it to two lanes and four roundabouts. Additionally, extensive modeling was done to make sure that the fire departments ladder trucks could access the narrow street system within the project.

Walla Walla Downtown Master Plan, Washington State walla walla, washington

This project run by Winter and Company, Boulder, CO, is a Master Plan for redevelopment of Walla Walla's downtown. This interesting project in one of the best preserved traditional towns in the northwest includes parking assessment, thoroughfare redesign into boulevards, lane reductions, pedestrian access design and transit enhancements.

Brookhaven, New York — Design Guidelines

Design Guidelines were written for three proposed town centers on Montauk Highway. The guidelines include architectural typology, land use based on the Transect, street types, building placement and a review process for staff. The Montauk Highway exists in a conventional sprawl pattern with strip commercial as a predominant artifact. The new guidelines will require that as vacant property develops, or existing buildings redevelop, they conform to the master plan for the evolving village centers.