PaperCity Magazine

PaperCity Houston May 2020

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Thomas Woltz's massive redesign of Houston's Memorial Park includes a land bridge over Memorial Drive to provide safe crossing for people and wildlife. A restored network of native prairie and savanna will act as a green sponge, helping to absorb storm water and mitigate flooding. WILD AT THOMAS WOLTZ — MASTERMIND OF SOME OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PARKS AND GARDENS IN THE WORLD, INCLUDING HUDSON YARDS AND BOK TOWER GARDENS — DOESN'T TAME NATURE AS MUCH AS HEAL IT. HERE, HE TALKS ABOUT HIS OWN GARDENS AND MASSIVE UTOPIAN PLAN FOR HOUSTON'S MEMORIAL PARK, WHICH CELEBRATES THE COMPLETION THIS MONTH OF THE PARK'S EASTERN GLADES, HINES LAKE, AND WETLANDS. BY REBECCA SHERMAN HEART 56 F or the past 12 days, Thomas Woltz has been sheltering at home, like much of America. It's a misty, chilly morning when we talk, the fog just starting to lift across the Virginia foothills, rays of sunshine fanning through somber clouds. Woltz, a world-renowned landscape architect, is looking out the windows of his 1880s house in Charlottesville to the drowsy gardens beyond. Thick walls of hornbeam hedges lie dormant, waiting. "It's early spring, so everything is still gray and bare and twiggy," he says. "But if you get close, you see buds popping — there's an incredibly rich microcosm of life and diversity that's happening." Yesterday, he gathered the first colorful bursts of flora from the garden, from tiny blue brunnera to the star-shaped red blossoms of Woodland Ruby anise, and arrayed them on the table to inspect. Recently he planted a substantial kitchen garden: Rows of butter lettuce, rainbow chard, mustard greens, mizuna, radishes, and English peas will start to poke through the ground in coming weeks.

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