History at the Heart of Landscape Design

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https://charlestonlibrarysociety.org/event/land-covenants-kept-or-history-at-the-heart-of-landscape-design/

History at the Heart of Landscape Design

All land, whether urban or rural, wild or toxic, holds a deep cultural and ecological history. It is this layered history of a site that must be critically researched and then transformed to endure for future generations. It is because of this mentality that Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW) is one of the most in-demand and respected landscape architecture firms in the US. In their second monograph, The Land is Full, NBW digs into this philosophy across twelve projects that illustrate the power of design in creating vital public realms at the heart of communities. It just so happens that they are intimately involved in our community, too, through the work of the Angel Oak Preserve, a 10-year community effort to unify an existing 9-acre city park with the surrounding 35 acres once threatened by insensitive development. In partnership with Middleton Place and Lowcountry Land Trust, we are so pleased to highlight the great work of this firm and the launch of The Land is Full by hosting Thomas Woltz, Senior Principal of NVW Landscape Architects, to share how he has expanded NBW to also include scientists and historians as integral contributors to the design of projects that range from restoration ecology in large urban parks to post-industrial sites and educational campuses.

If you are unable to attend the event, but would like to purchase one or more signed copies, please visit Buxton Books here.

About the Book

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.

The work of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, and indeed the very profession of landscape architecture, is set in a broad context through authoritative essays by noted scholars, ecologists, and cultural historians. It articulates the critical role the profession of landscape architecture plays in reshaping public space to meet the challenges of ecological and social resilience. An incisive introductory essay by Thomas Woltz, Senior Principal and owner of NBW, dives deeper into the practice’s research-driven design process, its approach to preservation, and its covenant with land.

About Thomas L. Woltz

Thomas L. Woltz, Senior Principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), works at the intersection of culture and ecology for the sustainability of the public realm. 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 SUNY College of 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 has also received the American Horticultural Society Landscape Design Award and was 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.