A Contemporary Master of Landscape Design

Thomas Woltz: A Contemporary Master of Landscape Design

Thomas Woltz is the owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Over the past two decades of practice, Thomas and his team have infused narratives of the land into the places where people live, work, and play, engendering stewardship and inspiring connections between people and the natural world.

Woltz was educated at the University of Virginia and holds master’s degrees in Landscape Architecture and Architecture. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the State University of New York, Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. He was recognized with the Land for People Award by the Trust for Public Land in 2019 and as one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company in 2017. Woltz currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Cultural Landscape Foundation and the University of Virginia School of Architecture Foundation.

At present, Thomas is leading NBW in the design of significant public landscapes across the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, including the John and Alice Coltrane Home in New York, Holden Forest & Arboretum in Cleveland, Cornwall Park in Auckland, and Memorial Park in Houston.

The mission of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects is to apply design excellence at the intersection of ecological and cultural systems. They believe in the power of design to positively shape communities and to reveal the beauty and complexity of our environment and our place in the world. As system thinkers, they seek to continue building on collaborations with clients and stakeholders in providing design solutions within ecologically and agriculturally productive landscapes, industrial and post-industrial sites, and in the public realm.