The Land is Full: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW)
with Thomas Woltz, author and senior principal and owner, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Wednesday, February 5, 2025 from 7-8 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members
This program is approved for 1 CEU with the Association of Professional Landscape Designers.
Thomas Woltz, senior principal and owner of NBW will use the firm’s just released monograph to reflect on the complex histories that are held in the land and how the firm reveals and engages them. NBW is one of the leading firms working in landscape architecture today with major commissions across the United States and abroad. Hear about how through the firm’s research-based process, ecological and cultural histories are revealed and integrated into meaningful public experiences.
The Land Is Full: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects is a collection of twelve major parks that illustrate the power of design to create vital public realms at the heart of communities. The Land Is Full features projects that engage exceptionally sensitive sites, including those that hold the vital histories of enslaved peoples, the rich cultures of indigenous peoples, and natural habitats that have been threatened by infrastructure and construction. One highlighted project in the northeast is a burial ground adjacent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard that has been reclaimed as a contemplative meadow filled with native plants, pollinators, and birds. Another in southern Texas is the revitalization of Memorial Park in Houston, a 1500-acre landscape that interweaves city infrastructure with a vibrant ecology. Thousands of miles to the northwest, the Aga Khan Garden in Alberta, Canada, stands as a regenerative horticultural sanctuary and the northern most Islamic garden on Earth, interpreting centuries of Islamic landscape history in a 21st century public garden.
Thomas L. Woltz, Senior Principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), leads his firm in the artful creation and revitalization of public landscapes. Working at the intersection of culture and ecology for the sustainability of the public realm, Thomas has led the expansion of NBW to include scientists and historians as integral contributors to the design of projects ranging from restoration ecology in large urban parks to post-industrial sites and educational campuses. Through this collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach, NBW’s designs reveal lost or erased histories in the landscape. The work of NBW now stretches across thirty states and twelve countries.
Thomas was educated at the University of Virginia and holds master’s degrees in landscape architecture and architecture as well as an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the State University of New York, Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. In 2011, Thomas was invested into the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows, among the highest honors achieved in the profession and was named the Design Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal Magazine. He was also recognized as one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company and with the Land for People Award by the Trust for Public Land. Woltz currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Cultural Landscape Foundation.
