Join us for the launch of 'The Land Is Full: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects', a new publication from Phaidon that celebrates the parks and public gardens by renowned landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz.
Join us for a lecture from Thomas L. Woltz, owner of American-based design practice Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, to hear about the firm’s design approach to public landscapes, and how inspiration is drawn from each site’s unique culture and ecological history.
The firm’s recently published book, The Land is Full, illustrates their methodology through 12 recent public gardens and parks, each telling unique and often forgotten stories of the land and those who inhabited it over time. From botanic gardens and landscape memorials to regional parks, the firm’s approach yields a remarkable breadth of beautiful and innovative interventions in climate resilience, enhanced biodiversity, and truth telling of lost histories.
Renowned author and historian, Andrea Wulf, will introduce Thomas L. Woltz and the lecture. She is the author of Magnificent Rebels, Brother Gardeners, and The Invention of Nature and composed the foreword to The Land is Full.
About the book –
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.
Presented alongside essays from noted scholars, ecologists, and cultural historians, the monograph articulates how the work and the profession of landscape architecture play a critical role in reshaping public spaces to meet the challenges of ecological and social resilience.
Speaker bios
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Thomas L. Woltz
Thomas L. Woltz
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.
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Andrea Wulf
Andrea Wulf
Andrea Wulf is an award-winning author of several books, including the international bestseller ‘The Invention of Nature. Alexander von Humboldt’s New World’ which is published in 27 languages. A New York Times bestseller, it also won fifteen international literary awards, including the Royal Society Science Book Prize, Costa Biography Award and the LA Times Book Prize, as well as awards in Germany, China, France and Italy. Her latest book Magnificent Rebels about the young Romantics was published under great acclaim in autumn 2022. Andrea is a member of PEN American Center and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
