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anemptytextllineThomas Woltz is the principal and owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW) with offices in New York City, Charlottesville VA, and San Francisco CA. During the past 19 years of practice, Woltz and his staff have forged a body of work that integrates the beauty and function of built form and craftsmanship with an understanding of complex biological systems and restoration ecology yielding hundreds of acres of reconstructed wetlands, reforested land, native meadows, and flourishing wildlife habitat. Currently NBW is entrusted with the design of 8 major public parks across the US, Canada and New Zealand. The firm’s work has been recognized with over 80 national and international awards and published widely. In 2011, Thomas Woltz was invested into the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows, among the highest honors achieved in the profession, and in 2013, named Design Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal Magazine. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. About TEDx In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.) This talk is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx source
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anemptytextllineThe Leading with Landscape II: The Houston Transformation conference explored how ambitious, large-scale landscape-architectural projects are taking the lead in shaping the nation’s 4th largest city. Held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Brown Auditorium on March 11, 2016, the conference brought together some of the leading thinkers and landscape architects who presented nationally significant projects. To learn more about the conference: http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/houston2016/index.html Chapter Two: Looking Forward - The moderator leads a Q & A session between the panelists and the audience. Moderator: Frederick Steiner, FASLA, FAAR, Dean of the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin Panelists: Chip Trageser, FASLA, Principal of The Office of James Burnett Thomas L. Woltz, FASLA, CLARB, Principal and Owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architect Douglas Reed, FASLA, RAAR, Partner of Reed Hilderbrand LLC Steven Spears, FASLA, PLA, AICP, Principal, Partner of Design Workshop Jamie Maslyn Larson, RLA, ASLA, Partner of West 8 New York source
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anemptytextllineDonnell Garden, October 5, 2007, Thomas Woltz discusses his impressions of the Donnell Garden. source
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anemptytextllineCompelling and visionary designers and others examine Toronto’s international leadership in landscape architecture-based development. Provocative, headline-making speakers at this May 2015 conference in Toronto highlighted exceptional design and sustainability in world-class waterfront projects, the city’s extensive ravine system and it legacy of parks. To learn more about the conference: http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/toronto2015/index.html Landscape architects have the tools to realign urban environments to their dependent systems for better quality of life and financial and environmental resilience. Using research into the physical, ecological and cultural aspects of a site/city as supported by collaborations with allied disciplines landscape architects can steer public and political will towards the creation of a compelling framework for action. Seen from this panned view parks and a wide variety of public spaces can become connected to each other and to the greater ecologic systems. This approach provides efficiencies in everything from preparation for extreme weather events to stormwater management and maintenance and financial investment. The social and environmental ecology of Toronto makes it a perfect laboratory for developing this approach, which will ultimately lead to the betterment of its citizens. Acknowledging the importance of connections, engagement and education in designing civic spaces. 1. Address the scale and ambition of the 1.8 million acres of the Toronto Greenbelt and the role of landscape architecture in contributing to its development. Explore a range of tactics from street design, and on-structure interventions to stormwater management and sustainable agriculture, implementable on a city-scale. Share proposed and built examples that address diverse conditions including agricultural, industrial and urban sites and note overlaps. 2. What happens when the largest parks of a region are restored leaving the smaller parks without funding? Discuss examples of political conflict that can arise and the perception of inequity. 3. Lobbying for and envisioning a model where private/public partnerships sustain and preserve a park network or greenbelt of connected sites from streetscapes to historic parks. Use well documented models of financial structures and support and expand to explore a possible city model: a. BeltLine Atlanta b. Bayou Greenways Initiative, Houston c. The Ravine network, Toronto d. Houston's Memorial Park, Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone structures and Parks Department and Conservancy funding 4. Compare and contrast the services and costs of the hard edge infrastructure of the Toronto Waterfront with those of Toronto's 44,000-acre Ravine Network. How can we monetize the services of the ravine network to stand up alongside the economic development potential of the $25 billion spent on the Toronto Waterfront to make the case for expenditures for care and maintenance of the network? How do we design resilience: can we balance new projects with the long-term maintenance and preservation of landscapes? source
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anemptytextllineThe Leading with Landscape II: The Houston Transformation conference explored how ambitious, large-scale landscape-architectural projects are taking the lead in shaping the nation’s 4th largest city. Held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Brown Auditorium on March 11, 2016, the conference brought together some of the leading thinkers and landscape architects who presented nationally significant projects. To learn more about the conference: http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/houston2016/index.html Panelist, Chapter Two: Looking Forward Thomas L. Woltz, FASLA, CLARB, Principal and Owner, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects Memorial Park Master Plan: Building a Resilient Future on the Foundations of the Past Houston's Memorial Park is a landscape rich in ecological and cultural history that has been invisible, untended and at times forgotten over the past century. At nearly twice the size of New York's Central Park, Memorial Park offers a remarkable opportunity to reset the distinct ecosystems of the park disrupted by transit infrastructure, invasive plants and six years of drought and flood. Since 2013 Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects has been developing a Master Plan for the park that balances ecological restoration with new features that reveal and celebrate the many cultural landscapes that have shaped the Park. These new amenities and destinations are based on the firm’s archeological, cultural, ecological and historical research. These include an interpretation of the 1920 Hare and Hare Master Plan; Camp Logan - the military history of the site as a training camp for WWI soldiers; and the Southern Arc, a mile-long boardwalk providing access to the diverse ravine ecology of the southern portion of the park and the riparian forest along the Buffalo Bayou. The plan also includes passive recreation opportunities, mountain bike and equestrian trails, renovated sport fields, and hundreds of miles of running and walking trials. Memorial Park is a successful example of a thriving public private partnership supporting a design that reveals the cultural and ecological history of Houston in a public landscape accessible to all. source
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anemptytextllinePublic parks are a source of civic identity for the communities they serve – inclusivity and authenticity are crucial. Similarly, memorials are bastions of democratic exchange and act as repositories of our cultural past and evolution. Thomas Woltz will present projects from the portfolio of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW) that demonstrate the power of the firm’s research-based design to reframe our relationship with civic, ecological, and cultural systems within the public realm. Lastly, Thomas will present NBW projects that prioritize the ecological health and resilience in agriculturally productive landscapes and reveal surprising connections between these typologies. Over the past two decades of practice, landscape architect Thomas Woltz has forged a body of work that integrates the beauty and function of built forms with an understanding of complex biological systems and restoration ecology. As principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), a 45-person firm based in Charlottesville, Virginia and New York City, Woltz has infused narratives of the land into the places where people live, work and play, deepening the public’s enjoyment of the natural world and inspiring environmental stewardship. NBW projects create models of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture within areas of damaged ecological infrastructure and working farmland, yielding hundreds of acres of reconstructed wetlands, reforested land, and flourishing wildlife habitat. Presently, Thomas and NBW are entrusted with the design of major public parks across the United States, Canada and New Zealand, they include Memorial Park in Houston, Hudson Yards in New York City, NoMA Green in Washington DC, Cornwall Park in Auckland, the Aga Khan Garden in Alberta, Canada, and three parks in Nashville, including Centennial Park. In 2013 was named Design Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal magazine and in 2017 Fast Company named Woltz one of the most creative people in business. source