SWA Group’s Growth Drives Expansion To 30-Person Office in Shanghai; New Office Leaders Named in China, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston

SHANGHAI & LOS ANGELES & DALLAS & HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SWA Group, one of the world’s leading landscape architecture, planning and urban design firms, announced today that client-growth has led to an expansion of its office in Shanghai, and to the elevation of SWA principals to additional leadership roles in Shanghai, Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles. Demand for SWA’s landscape-based approach to design including large-scale master planning and urban design services has increased its global work significantly. Assignments in the US and other markets have expanded, and in China alone, SWA has over 100 active projects.

“Developers, investors, corporations, architects and regional planners are seeking us out, and our creative studio approach enables us to pull together the right team very quickly.”

The new office leadership includes:

-- In Shanghai, two SWA principals have relocated from the U.S. to oversee the firm’s design consultancy studio providing services in China and Asia. Scott Slaney and David Thompson are Co-Managing Principals of the Shanghai office, effective immediately, leading an expansion of SWA’s team there that will soon exceed 30 people. Slaney has relocated from Houston and Thompson from Dallas. The two principals have direct China experience spanning three decades and will continue serving clients in the United States, Europe and Latin America while working closer with an expanding client base in Asia. Among the many current projects in the Shanghai studio are two 15 square-kilometer national parks, a 13 square-kilometer agri-cultural preserve integrated with tourism destinations, plus major urban design and city planning efforts in Beijing, Qingdao, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Tianjin. The studio also has projects in Mexico, Russia and Turkey.

-- Kinder Baumgardner, a principal in Houston, takes on the role of Managing Principal for the Houston office, one of the firm’s largest, and growing with expanded work from the Buffalo Bayou’s continued transformation as well as projects in Texas and China. In taking over the position from Slaney, Baumgardner joins a Houston leadership team that includes SWA’s CEO, Kevin Shanley. The Houston office has added six hires in recent months, including Todd Meyer, Practice Leader-Planning, to head up the team’s urban planning efforts. Meyer was formerly a director of planning for HOK in Chicago.

-- Chuck McDaniel, a senior design principal in SWA’s Dallas office will take over as Managing Principal of that office in servicing clients in Dallas – Ft. Worth, across the US and globally. The Dallas team retained Jeff Craft, also named Practice Leader-Planning in charge of urban planning efforts. He was formerly a principal planner for HLA Group, Beijing and Sacramento.

-- Ying-Yu Hung, a principal in Los Angeles and part-time faculty member in the University of Southern California’s graduate program in landscape architecture, becomes Managing Principal of SWA’s Los Angeles office, where company President Gerdo Aquino is also based. The office has added five staff via U.S. and worldwide work including redesigning the historic San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso, Texas; creating a 7 km waterfront park and wetlands in Fuyang, China; and the campus landscape master planning for Cal State University Long Beach.

“SWA is experiencing growth across all of our offices, from clients in China, the US and elsewhere around the globe,” said Aquino.

“Increased interest in sustainable and environmentally sensitive development has been a key driver for SWA’s work, whether for an important urban waterfront, civic landscape infrastructure, commercial/mixed use project, corporate headquarters, resort destination, planned community or an entirely new city,” he said. “Developers, investors, corporations, architects and regional planners are seeking us out, and our creative studio approach enables us to pull together the right team very quickly.”

Among SWA Group’s most active assignments are:

- Sustainable communities
- Corporate and educational campuses
- Senior housing and senior communities
- Hospitals and healthcare complexes
- Resorts and hospitality facilities
- Amenitized urban infrastructure such as parks and pedestrian waterfronts
- Redevelopment projects and high-density urban design
- Restoration of waterways, habitat and urban forest

About SWA Group:

SWA Group is an international landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm. SWA has offices in San Francisco, Sausalito, CA, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, CA, Dallas, Houston, Shanghai and the United Arab Emirates. Since its inception, SWA has worked in over 60 countries, and its projects have garnered more than 600 awards. For more information, visit www.swagroup.com.