SWT Design and the Gateway Foundation received a Landscape Architecture Honorable Mention in the 2008 Webster Groves Awards of Excellence for Back Flip, an art installation at the intersection of Big Bend Boulevard and Lockwood Avenue.  

Public art engages the community and enhances the public realm, making works of art accessible for all to experience. For the past 25 years, the Gateway Foundation, a private foundation, has been striving to enrich St. Louis life and culture by supporting efforts to acquire, create, and/or improve tangible and durable art and urban design.

SWT Design along with Gateway Foundation took great care to identify a sculpture that would be playful and of the correct scale to fit with in the community for the Old Orchard Business District of Webster Groves. The placement took advantage of the "Y" intersection of Big Bend and Lockwood for its outstanding visibility both by car and pedestrians. The site design invites the public to interact and enjoy the park-like setting. Crafted stone walls create an elliptical zoysia lawn terrace for the sculpture to playfully "Backflip" on while allowing people to sit and enjoy. A majority of the landscape used is native to Missouri and creates a setting that is attractive and engaging. Walkways were incorporated to flow from the adjacent campuses and neighborhoods to invite people into the park. A flagstone terrace provides and entry forecourt to the Backflip creating a pleasant place to sit and enjoy the park. Great effort was taken to relocate unwanted utility poles to reduce the visual clutter while providing new lighting that allows the park to be safe and exciting in the night.

The Gateway Foundation has enlisted the expertise of SWT Design to assist in the site selection and landscape design of more than nine public sculptures to date throughout the St. Louis Region. Each work of art and respective site is particular and presents individual challenges. SWT Design has a proven understanding of the unique balance required between public art and landscape architecture to create outdoor spaces that enlighten, engage, and inspire the community.

Landscape Architect: SWT Design

General Contractor: Acme Erectors

About SWT Design: SWT Design is known for high quality landscape architecture, urban design, and planning expertise making them one of the most sought after design firms in the Midwest. SWT Design provides environmentally sensitive planning and design services and is known for their work overseeing the landscape architecture and design for a diversity of projects nationwide. The SWT design team is comprised of landscape architects, urban designers, architects, and horticulturalists, specializing in master planning and the design of parks and recreation, greenways, corporate, retail and academic campuses, streetscapes, civic amenities, design standards, branding and identity, residential communities, private residences and sustainable "green" design. The firm's emphasis on teamwork permeates all aspects of their work, from building strong, long-lasting client relationships to their uniquely creative design solutions.  For more information about SWT Design, please visit http://www.swtdesign.com/.