Culture, Climate, and Community: Landscapes of the Ismaili Center, Houston (walking tour)
Join ASLA Texas and Architecture Center Houston for a tour of the Ismaili Center Garden on October 21 at 9:30 am with Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.
In 2019, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, in partnership with Farshid Moussavi Architects and AKT II Engineers, and DLR as the AOR, was awarded the commission for an extensive, nine-acre landscape design project for the first Ismaili Center in the United States. The Ismaili Center, Houston, the seventh Ismaili Center worldwide, builds on the mission of the Ismaili community to advance pluralism, public understanding, and civic outreach in communities around the world. The Ismaili Center, Houston, will host social and cultural gatherings, foster intellectual engagement and reflection, and act as a sanctum for spiritual contemplation. The Center’s monumental architecture sits at the top of a series of terraces that step down to the Buffalo Bayou, reflecting a topographical and hydrological relationship to rivers that dates back thousands of years. Constructed site elements connect the site to global Persian landscapes and architecture, while the horticulture grounds each garden in Texas, utilizing emblematic plants from the state’s unique ecoregions.
AIA Credit: 1.0 HSW
ASLA Credit: 1.0 HSW
AIA MEMBERS PLEASE NOTE:
Per AIA National CE Standards, any learning program approved for AIA Learning Units may award CE credit for the approved program for up to (3) years from the date of approval, so long as the CES Provider is in good standing. AIA Members may repeat the same course, but no additional credit will be granted or recorded.
Design Team
Client: Aga Khan Foundation
Architect: Farshid Moussavi
Landscape Architect: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Architect and engineer of record: DLR Group
Structural, civil, geotechnical, bioclimatic and facade engineer: AKT II
Contractor: McCarthy Building Companies
Thomas Woltz, Senior Principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), leads his firm in the artful creation and revitalization of public landscapes, working at the intersection of culture and ecology for the sustainability of the public realm. Through a collaborative and research-based approach, NBW’s designs reveal lost or erased histories in the landscape. The work of NBW now stretches across thirty states and twelve countries. In 2011, Thomas was invested into the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows, among the highest honors achieved in the profession and was named the Design Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal Magazine. He has also been recognized as one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company and with the Land for People Award by the Trust for Public Land ― and was a 2025 Frederic Church Award honoree. Thomas currently serves as the Board of Directors Co-Chair for The Cultural Landscape Foundation.
