Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Practice information
PartnersThomas Woltz
Warren Byrd (former)
Susan Nelson (former)
FoundedCharlottesville, Virginia, United States (1985 (1985))
Website
www.nbwla.com

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW) is an American landscape architecture firm based in New York, Charlottesville, and Houston, led by Thomas Woltz.[1][2]

History

Warren Byrd and Susan Nelson founded Nelson Byrd Landscape Architects in 1985 in Charlottesville, Virginia.[1][2] Thomas Woltz became a named partner in 2004 and sole owner of the firm in 2013.[1][2][3]

Notable Work

The firm's notable work includes designing major public parks, restoring damaged ecological landscapes, and developing projects that combine agriculture, ecological restoration, and cultural use.[1][3][4][5]

At Memorial Park in Houston, the largest urban green space in Texas at 1,500 acres,[6] the firm revitalized the drought-stricken landscape with native plantings and features including the Eastern Glades, the Land Bridge and Prairie, a running track, and a reconstructed stream.[6][7][8] A 100-acre swath of the park will become a memorial to soldiers of the First World War, with a budget of $42 million as of 2025.[9]

At the Citygarden park and sculpture garden in St. Louis, NBW transformed an unused plot within the 1.1-mile-long strip of open space called the Gateway Mall, into a series of meandering paths meant to evoke the nearby Mississippi River. The park features sculptural work from contemporary and modern artists. The park opened in July 2009 and was conceived to be a “sculpture garden, urban park, and urban garden”.[10][11]

The public square and gardens at Hudson Yards in New York City is a 5-acre (2 ha) landscaped space with 28,000 plants and 225 trees on a platform spanning dozens of active rail lines that generate intense heat from below, requiring intricate soil engineering and cooling systems.[12][13][3][14][15] The plaza's southern side includes a canopy of trees, while the southeast entrance also contains a fountain. A "'seasonally expressive' entry garden" stands outside the entrance to the New York City Subway's 34th Street–Hudson Yards station.[16] The plaza also connects to the High Line, an elevated promenade at its south end.[17]

Orongo Station in New Zealand is a 3,000-acre coastal farm where NBW's work combined ecological restoration, responsible agriculture, and cultural revitalization in consultation with local Maori people.[18][19]

NBW has been recognized for the design of memorials and historically sensitive sites including the Burial Ground for Enslaved People at Monticello,[8] the Brooklyn Naval Cemetery Landscape[20], the John Jay Heritage Center[21], and the Georgia Institute of Technology EcoCommons.[22]

Additional notable landscape architecture projects include the Olana State Historic Site in New York[23], the Rothko Chapel in Houston[24], Bok Tower Gardens in Florida[25], Hudson Valley Shakespeare[26], and the Ismaili Center Houston[27].

Books and Exhibitions

Nelson Byrd Woltz is the subject two books. The first, Garden, Park, Community, Farm ISBN 9781616891145, with essays by landscape historian Elizabeth K. Meyer, was published in 2013 by Princeton Architectural Press. The second, The Land is Full ISBN 9781580936606, published by The Monacelli Press in 2024, includes essays by Nina-Marie Lister, Brent Leggs, and Robert Pogue Harrison.[28] In 2024, the firm's work received a solo exhibition at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Gordon, Alastair (November 6, 2013). "The Expansive Designs of Landscape Architect Thomas Woltz". The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Hudson, Kath (2019). "LANDSCAPE DESIGN - Thomas Woltz". CLAD. CLAD. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Vanamee, Norman (February 6, 2017). "How Thomas Woltz Is Shifting Landscape Architecture". 1stDibs. Introspective, 1stDibs. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  4. ^ Griswold, Marc (February 2018). "A View of the World - Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects has restored what might have been Frederic Church's greatest work: the landscape of Olana, his upstate New York home". Landscape Architecture Magazine. American Society of Landscape Architects. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  5. ^ Budds, Diana (October 17, 2016). "Landscape Architect Thomas Woltz Is Coming To A Park Near You". Fast Company. Fast Company. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Lubell, Sam (2023-08-04). "The Rebirth of Houston's Giant but Ailing Memorial Park". Metropolis. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  7. ^ "Ecology and Design for Houston's Memorial Park Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects". Center for Plant Conservation. 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  8. ^ a b Rozzo, Mark (2023-04-02). "Thomas Woltz, Bard of the Soil". Town & Country. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  9. ^ "New $42M Memorial Park Project to Honor WWI Past". Houston First. 2025-04-22. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  10. ^ Walker, Alissa (November 19, 2009). "St. Louis Gets Its High Line: Citygarden Sculpture Park". Fast Company. Fast Company. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  11. ^ "Spirit of St. Louis". Metropolis Magazine. Metropolis Magazine. November 1, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  12. ^ Budds, Diana (2016-10-17). "Landscape Architect Thomas Woltz Is Coming To A Park Near You". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 2025-02-23. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  13. ^ Dunlap, David W. (July 22, 2015). "A Garden Will Grow With Fans, Concrete, Coolant and 28,000 Plants". New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  14. ^ Whiteside, Katherine (January 1, 2014). "Thomas L. Woltz's Ecologically Regenerative Landscapes". Architectural Digest. Conde Nast. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  15. ^ "Conversation with Hudson Yards Landscape Architect Thomas Woltz | 2019-03-15 | Architectural Record". www.architecturalrecord.com. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  16. ^ "Progress Report: Hudson Yards". Chelsea Now. January 29, 2015. Archived from the original on February 8, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  17. ^ Plitt, Amy (September 14, 2016). "First look at Hudson Yards's enormous, interactive 'public landmark'". Curbed NY. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  18. ^ "Restoring a degraded landscape through design". Ellen Macarthur Foundation. 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  19. ^ Gordon, Alastair (2014-09-14). "Orongo Station". Design Anthology. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  20. ^ Dunlap, David W. (2016-07-11). "Prairie Heals an Old Wound at a Former Brooklyn Cemetery". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  21. ^ Clement, Douglas P. (2016-03-11). "At the Jay Heritage Center in Rye: Young Americans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  22. ^ Howorth, Bebe (2021-04-22). "A New Memorial Marries Ecological and Social Justice". Elle Decor.
  23. ^ Volner, Ian (2026-05-20). "Olana, Artist Frederic Church's House of Dreams, Took 40 Years to Build". ELLE Decor. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  24. ^ Roche, Daniel Jonas (2024-04-17). "Phase two of Rothko Chapel's campus expansion breaks ground". The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  25. ^ "Bok Tower Gardens Unveils New Gardens". American Public Gardens Association. 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  26. ^ Eberhardt, Ellen (2026-05-14). "Studio Gang completes open-air theatre in upstate New York". Dezeen. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  27. ^ "Houston's new Ismaili Centre is an architectural triumph". Wallpaper*. 2025-11-24. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  28. ^ "The Land Is Full: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects | Standard Edition | 9781580936606". Phaidon. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
  29. ^ "The Land is Full — Exhibition + Book Talk: A Visual Recap | University of Virginia School of Architecture". www.arch.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2026-06-01.
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