The Land Is Full

Written By Lilianna Broce

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Monacelli/Phaidon, 240 pages, $64.95

This 2024 monograph explores 12 major projects from the previous decade by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, including substantial renovations to Memorial Park in Houston and Centennial Park in Nashville; plus the creation of the Aga Khan Garden in Edmonton, Alberta, and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The projects are arranged among four defining essays by Thomas Woltz, the firm’s lead principal, Nina-Marie Lister, Brent Leggs, and Robert Pogue Harrison. The book opens with a foreword by the historian Andrea Wulf. My role began with early concepts for the book and continued with my editing the contributors’ essays and visiting and writing about the individual projects (except one, Machicomoco State Park in Virginia, written by Tim Popa of NBWLA).

The Land Is Full can be ordered directly from Phaidon here.

Lilianna Broce
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The Gardens of Ron Herman