New Book | Selected works of John L. Wong

John L. Wong graduated from the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University with a master’s degree in 1978. Since joining SWA in 1976, John has directed an array of projects, from the design and crafting of small gardens to the large-scale planning and design of neighborhoods, towns, and new communities. He has extensive experience in North America, the Middle East, and Asia—particularly in Japan, Korea, and China.

In addition to the wide range of project types and regions, John’s other two outstanding achievements include: John has led more than 150 campus improvement projects at Stanford University, including the award-winning DAPER Master Plan and the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts. He and his teams have designed the groundscapes for 12 of the 100 tallest buildings in the world.

With the continuous emergence of climate change problems, environmental design requires more and more resilience and social equity. John L. Wong has conducted a comprehensive combing with his career for more than 40 years, and precipitated his practical experience into books as a new exploration and response to the challenges of this era.

Feedback from Peter Walker, who wrote the foreword to this book

I particularly enjoyed two quotes, one from David Neuman, “a campus is not primarily a collection of buildings but rather the open space between them”, and two, from your old friend James Cheng, “why would a landscape architect want to hang around with a bunch of architects out looking at buildings?”

The message is strong and clear, the examples are compelling and persuasive. Of course your drawings are, as ever, beautiful and bring back memories.

The book is scheduled for release in early August, and mooool Bookstore has acquired the rights to sell the book. We are honored to have John himself join us for an exclusive interview to discuss the book and its Landscape philosophy.

* Following the interview, readers will find a display of the book’s inside pages, along with a QR code that allows them to make a purchase.

# 01

Writing a book is a kind of self-reflection.

mooool：What’s your motivation for writing this book at that time, and what kind of feedback do you expect from the industry or the market after publishing this book?

John：After almost practicing nearly 5 decades in the Landscape Architectural profession, I was constantly working, travelling, giving talks, thinking, meeting with clients, consultants and collaborators. I’ve decided to take a moment to take a snapshot at my career given all the incredible opportunities that I have had experienced and to see whether I can reflect on the many projects that I have worked on along with working in many different places regions, and cultures. It is a self-critique and taking stock of what I have been doing and as always, I’m constantly looking for a smarter and better way to apply my skills to engage in the design of our environment.

The problems of the world are constantly changing that directly and indirectly affect our cities and the immediate environment so we need to learn from our past success and mistake. Document the past project works and experiences help me to sharpen my focus more into the next upcoming project and challenge.

I hope the industry and/or the market will embrace this book and will respond positively to the contents and the important message that Landscape Architecture can have an important role and impact in shaping our environment. The book is in the final process to be available around mid-July to early August this year (pending on location and sourcing) for public consumption so the general public has not gotten hold of the book just yet. But I’m very hopeful that it will received well and that the book will send a strong and positive message out for the Landscape Architecture profession. The most immediate message is the importance of ‘Collaboration’ may it be your colleagues on the project team, the visionary clients, the talented architects, engineers, exceptional consultants and contractors from all over the world and many others which contributed to the completion of the illustrated project. And the second message is the “Scale” and “Types” of the various project opportunities which can have a profound impact to make our neighborhood, our community, our city and our world a better place to co-exist.

mooool：In your nearly 50 years of career, in the face of diverse and even vastly different cultures in different countries, do you have more detailed presentation of design methodology in your books, or have you elaborated the experience and changes of your personal feelings, concepts and ideological theories during your long career? Please be specific.

John：My career had taken me from West coast which I grew up then to East coast where I spent 7 years in Graduate school and working in a design experimental office mentoring under an individual who made a major impact to the development of the contemporary landscape practice; then I was able to work and travel to different part of the country in North America; and then in responding to the international practice starting with Japan, then Korea, Indonesia, China and Europe and Middle East, the practice was evolving from a regional practice to a global practice. Given all the diverse projects with the differences in culture, politics, economic, social norm, climate, and the land, I approach my work in more or less similar with one general design methodology. That one needs to design with the full understanding of the place with the local environmental make-ups in terms of recognition of the natural phenomenon. We need to visit the place, experience the place and learn by seeing it with respect and to conserve and preserve where’s possible. I do not have an ideological theory when designing for one place and use another theory for another locale. The design process takes a full analytical understanding of the place and adding on the programmatic requirement from the client’s vision and follow with a ‘Big Idea’ approach with solution that resolves the inherent various conflicts from the project.

The things that I’ve discovered through the years with the many design projects in different parts of the world and after having the opportunities in returning to see the project 20 and/or 30 years later. The important lessons are the followings and they are not in any order of importance…..

1.Find solution and design the project to be more resilience – that the project can adapt to change in their immediate environment; durable materials and has the ability to last; having the ability to respond to the constant physical changes; and allowing for flexible uses.

2. Trees are the most important element for the project. When the planted trees matured over times, they become the structure and backbone of the project. The middle ground planting of shrubs and ground cover will change out overtime and will not have a major effect on the design. Aside for the all the environmental benefits, trees provide shade, clean the air from dust, absorb carbon, greening the environment, provide a positive state of health and well-being to the immediate environment and provide major seasonal interest and more……

3.The importance of having good and proper maintenance of the design landscape is the key to maintain the sense of place.

4.Design spaces for all ages to be inclusive with equal access

↑ This book includes John’s early works, residential gardens, Stanford University cooperation projects, the groundscapes for 12 out of the 100 tallest buildings in the world, recent projects and interview with James Moore McCowan

# 02

I am also growing through experience.

mooool：Could you share a few moments/experiences where you have had a significant change in your mindset or outlook?

John：As I pointed out in my Interview with James Moore McCowan and in my Chapter Introductions, there were a few moments/experiences in my career that shaped my way of my belief and pointed me to grow in my professional career.. The first one being in my early years of growing up in Hong Kong, China. The growth of the city, the urban expansion, the life style and the unique culture of the island help shaped my way of looking at our physical environment.

The next one being accepted to the SWA (Sasaki Walker Associates)1972 Summer Program where I interned and was exposed to one of the most influential landscape architectural practice in the bay area. We were given weekly design problem in the morning and to prepare for a presentation on Friday. We also were assigned to studio team and worked on real project in the afternoon and exposed and learned from some of the young talents of the firm. And in weekend, there were field trips to see projects in the Bay Area. It was an intensive summer but it helped set the early learning on landscape design for me.

The third one was my two years spent in 1977-1978 at Harvard University Graduate School of Design in getting my Master of Urban Design in Landscape Architecture. I grew up in the West coast and lived in the bay area and never experienced the East coast so the opportunity to live in a different climate with different people was an incredible opportunity for me to learn new thing and a new way of life. At the University, I came to meeting many incredibly talented fellow students and educators. I also met many fellow classmates who became my clients and collaborators in future project pursuit.

Then there was the next important change when I spent a year in 1981-82 studying in Rome, Italy at the American Academy in Rome. There, I travelled throughout Italy and in Europe and visited many countries, cities, places and beautiful gardens. I also met many of my Fellows/colleagues who were architects, painters, sculptors, artists, art historian and scholars. We became close friends and some became collaborators in my later project pursuit.

The final one was from 1982 to 1985 after my return from Rome, I continued to work with SWA Group East, an experimental design office set up by SWA. I was working with Peter Walker who was also teaching and Chair at Harvard University Graduate School of Design Department of Landscape Architecture and was leading the design effort for SWA Group East. I’ve watched, learned and worked on many very prominent projects and with many prominent architects. SOM, for example, was one of the firm with many design talents that I had the opportunity to get to know and collaborate at a later time of my practice.

mooool：SWhat kind of public landscape does SWA pursue and what is your definition of good landscape design?

John：The practice at SWA is quite vast and broad as we have a group of Partners that have many specific interest so the pursuit of project types varied. Our primary pursuit on projects are divided in the public realm, resilient city, mix-use commercial, community, institutional, creative work place, hospitality & life style, Public realm is probably the most important area focus for me and for the firm as the design is dealing with the quality of outdoor spaces in the public arena. This is the area where we integrate ecology, mobility, infrastructure, and programming and activation strategies to create a sense of place with exceptional environment. May it be a public park, a water front promenade, a public plaza, and/or a regional connector, the impact to enrich the lives of the users and provide lasting value for the community and the city is one of the most important goal that we want to strive for.

My definition of good landscape design should have some aspect of the followings…….Resilient, Adaptive, Sustainable, Accessible, Well Recognized, Distinctive…… and with some Art & Beauty.

↑ Guthrie Green Park，Guthrie Green transforms a 2.6-acre truck yard into a lively urban park，2012

# 03

Pursuing a resilient and lasting landscape

The landscape work in China is typically constructed in a hurry and the craftmanship is usually poor due to lack of skilled labor. but now the gap is narrowing, and they have more time to think about what is effective and lasting.

mooool：When reading this book, I feel that the temperament and thinking logic presented by Chinese projects are very different from those presented by foreign projects. I don’t know whether it is my prejudice against “my own” things or the “freshness” of distant places. How do you feel? Is the experience of building a landscape the same in China or any other country?

John：My design approach to working locally in the states to working overseas in Asia, Europe or Middle East is the same except to recognize and respect the specific ecology and natural phenomenon of the place. The solution typically is to resolve a lot of inherent conflicts created by the proposed uses and programmatic needs from the client and to create a place of beauty with resiliency. That said, the feeling that you have regarding a Chinese projects vs a local/foreign projects may have some probable reasons behind it.

For most projects in China, we (foreign consultant) typically were hired to do the design work from the Concept phase, Schematic Design phase to Design Development phase then the project turned over to a Local Design Institute to complete the Construction Documentation phase and to carry out the Construction Observation phase due to licensing, drawing approval requirement and cost consideration. The latter phase we have very little control over the design and it is a very important phase to make sure all the design elements are thoroughly developed and coordinated. We have had projects where we were hired to provide design guardianship for the latter phases and we found the finished product were much more improved to assure that our design intent carried out. In recent time due to the change in economy, we have been hired only to design up to Schematic Design phase and the subsequent phase of the design will be carried out by others.

We don’t like the direction is going and the successful outcome will depend on the ability of the Local Design Institute. We have found some LDI collaborators to be well equipped and understand our approach on developing the idea and we try to seek them out and to collaborate with them. We have also maintain some field specialist to provide construction input during the final construction to maintain a higher quality when and wherever we can.

Another reason is the construction means and method of the local contractors in China that have contributed to the way a project look and feel. The landscape work in China is typically constructed in a hurry and the craftmanship is usually poor due to lack of skilled labor. There are some highly qualified and competent builders and pending on the project location, budget, the quality of the product is subjected to the qualification of the construction team along with the available time schedule.

I think the general project outcome is vastly improved in the recent years comparing to 30 years ago when I start to design and implement projects in China. As I indicated above, the appropriate planting of trees are one of the most important aspect for the project outcome especially when the project is beginning to mature.

mooool：The projects in the book give me the most intuitive feeling that Chinese projects seem to pay more attention to the surface form, shape and appearance details, while American projects pay more attention to the systematic planning behind it, do you think so?

John：You maybe be correct to see some aspect to that but the gap is closing. I think China went through a major development boom in the last 30 years and many early developers wanted their projects to have the most unusual, attractive, unique and eye catching idea for marketing reasons. Now they have more time to reflect what works and what doesn’t and they see that some of the earlier decision made has no lasting value and this is just a learning curve for the client and for us the designer.

The next high bar for the standard of design construction also has been raised, the construction techniques are constantly improving and the material of construction is also becoming more readily available and standardized so the gap is getting closer.

The American projects typically required a longer project entitlement and approval process where zoning restriction is quite specific; the approval process is long and tedious; neighborhood and community process are the norm. So project in terms of our it looks, feels, and impacting a neighborhood is carefully vetted and designed. That perhaps speaks to the more systematic planning and approach to a given project proposal. I think China in various towns and cities have instituted such process already and it will improve the quality of the overall development.

↑ John Wong’s recent landscape works, public space of Dubai World Expo 2020.

# 04

Looking to ever raising the ‘Design’ bar.

All landscape projects are important to users, even small courtyards and gardens can have a great impact and leave a lasting impression on users.

mooool：The book focuses on large-scale municipal and other public landscapes, and will consider social/economic benefits to a certain extent, so do you have any different experiences or opinions on small-scale landscapes (courtyards, gardens, etc.)? Whether every aspect of your life has been integrated into the landscape design.

John：I think all landscape projects are important to the people who eventually will be using the space whether it is for outdoor social activities, passive recreation or for visual and contemplation. The larger scale projects will have an important role and function for the specific location that the project is in but some of the smaller courtyards and gardens can be just as important as a place for the project. And pending on the relationship of the space with its immediate neighbor, the smaller courtyards and gardens can make a huge impact to create a lingering impression to the user. The project in the book illustrated many different spaces “From Private to Public Ground’, ‘From Small to Tall’. The large-scale municipal and other public landscapes presented in the book are based on my career involvement with many of the leading architects, designers, developers and institutions and I was fortunate to be able to collaborate and learn from them.

mooool：Can this book be regarded as a review of your design career?

John：The work presented is capturing a major period of my career from 1974 when I first entered the profession to early 2024. I am still working to date and constantly continuing to search for better and more responsive solution to meet our environmental design challenge of our time – climate change, sea level rising, social inequities and improving our way of life looking into the future. So my design career is still evolving and with luck and good health, I hope to continue to be a force and voice for the profession of Landscape Architecture and looking to continue to be relevant and to ever raising the ‘Design’ bar.

Over the past 20 plus years, SWA Group has been working with the Stanford University – Campus Planning and Design to reclaim the 100-year-old master plan vision of Leland Stanford and Frederick Law Olmsted for the campus

↑ John led the team to design an open opera center for traditional Cantonese opera，2019，Hong Kong

# 05

Always be close to outstanding talents.

Go work for one of the best firm; go out and travel and see projects with a critical eye; get to know people especially those not in the same professions; learn from others.

mooool：For young landscape architects, do you have a career direction or life advice, the current industry dilemma, where we can start?

John：I think every individual who wants to pursue a career in Landscape Architecture can find the opportunity to fulfill a successful professional and career choice. The profession is growing and in needs of young people with proper design training and we have a shortage of good talents. The field is vast in the subject area of design, technology, planning, special knowledge, and thought leadership so the opportunity to select an area of interest to fit each individual background is excellent.

I think young landscape architects will need to be passionate with the work they do. They should get a good education in landscape architecture with a reputable institution; minimum a Bachelor degree and a Master degree would be ideal but not a requirement; go work for one of the best firm one can get access to and mentor with the leading person(s); go out and travel and see projects with a critical eye; learn about the project and the basic layout, structure, the use of materials by means of sketching and/or photography; go attend special presentation on related subjects and learn from others; get to know people especially those not in the same professions – architects, planners, developers, builders, educators, artists, engineers……..

Obviously, every individual will develop their career in many different ways but getting started with some of the suggestion above is a possible way to getting start at least that’s how I started!

mooool：Is there anything else you would like to share with readers about this book?

John：The book showcased about 20% of my selected projects and the publisher and I had a challenging task of putting a body of works that best represented the design philosophy and the contemporary landscape practice of the time in my career. I hope we were able to communicate the opportunity that I had in meeting the challenge of our time. We were ready to respond to the tremendous growth in our community and cities but we were still overwhelmed and the challenge and opportunity are still with us and calling for better and stronger responses to preserve and improving our way of life moving forward.

⇓ A quick look at books

Content overview：

This book is roughly divided into three parts. First, Personal philosophy: “learn from the best people and others”, early works show; Second, Representative works: Stanford University and institutional projects, Landscape/groundscape for the world’s tall and tallest structures, residential gardens; Third, Future exploration: Design responses to improve resilience, Recent works and ongoing challenges/opportunities, Exclusive interview.

Foreword overview：

John has worked with the SWA Group in all of their developmental stages for more than 50 years. I first met John in 1972 when he joined the Sasaki Walker summer program in their offices in Sausalito, California. Even then John amazed all of us with the quality of his freehand drawings. He had what landscape designers in those days called a “good hand”. This he exhibited in all his design work to such a degree that everyone was impressed.
……
Looking back, it has been a privilege to have been a small part of John’s story and to have been able to watch, with pride, the many contributions he and the SWA Group have made to the art of landscape design.