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HGA and Nelson Byrd Woltz Complete Design of the Burial Ground for Enslaved People at Monticello

Project to be rededicated June 1718, 2022 to coincide with Juneteenth.

Charlottesville, VA – Interdisciplinary design firm HGA and renowned landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW) are honored to announce the completion of a project at the Burial Ground for Enslaved People at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Burial Ground is the final resting place for an estimated 40 enslaved people who lived and labored at Monticello.  

Monticello
Photo credit: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

The Burial Ground for Enslaved People will be rededicated this weekend as part of a two-day public program that will highlight the importance of descendant voices in the telling of American history—voices that have often been marginalized, or left out completely. Held on Monticello’s iconic West Lawn, this public program will bring descendants of Monticello’s enslaved families, thought leaders, writers, artists, and historians, including Wynton Marsalis, Ava DuVernay, Darren Walker, Karen Brooks, Annette Gordon-Reed, and HGA’s own Peter D. Cook, together in conversation. Learn more and register to attend this free event at monticello.org/ascendant.

The project is the result of an intensive process that included researching historic site conditions, listening sessions with the descendant community, and intensive historic research, site, and spatial analysis.   

“From the very beginning of this project, HGA and NBW understood how important it was to collaborate with members of Monticello’s descendant community and to prioritize their voices,” explains Director of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Monticello, Andrew Davenport. “The results of that close collaboration are improvements that better honor and protect the solemnity of the site. We look forward to rededicating the Burial Ground and sharing its history with all who visit Monticello.” 

The Burial Ground features:  

  • A new pathway and landscape encircling the Burial Ground offering places for introspection; 
  • Physical markers to and from the burial site and the nearby David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center that encourage visitors to explore the space as they begin or conclude their journey at Monticello; 
  • Private outdoor spaces for descendants to pay their respects; and  
  • An enlarged landscaped, sensory buffer made possible through the removal of a minor road adjacent to the Burial Ground.
Monticello
Site plan for the Burial Ground for Enslaved People at Monticello, courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

“Four decades after my first visit to Monticello as a teenager, I found myself part of a design team challenged by visionaries at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation to honor the enslaved people who had remained largely invisible over the centuries,” said Peter Cook. “Our team’s immersive design process led to a design that pays respect to the enslaved and their descendants, provides greater visibility to the Burial Ground, and helps make the Burial Ground central to the understanding of Monticello.” 

“So much of our work is about daylighting the cultural history of the land,” explains Thomas Woltz, principal and owner of NBW. “I can’t imagine a better or more important example of this work than the Burial Ground at Monticello, which for too long has been obscured. This project is an example of how design can make a place feel intentional, dignified, beautiful, and cared-for and can help bring daylight to this critical history of our nation.” 

HGA and NBW are currently completing the design for the Contemplative Site at Monticello, which will offer a quiet place of reflection, afford an opportunity for healing, and honor the 607 enslaved men, women, and children who lived and worked at Monticello.  

Monticello
Photo credit: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

About HGA 

HGA is a national interdisciplinary design firm committed to making a positive, lasting impact for our clients and communities through research-based, holistic solutions. We believe that great design requires a sense of curiosity—forming deep insight into our clients, their contexts, and the human condition. We are a collective of over 900 architects, engineers, interior designers, planners, researchers, and strategists. Our practice spans multiple markets, including corporate, cultural, education, local and federal government, healthcare, and science and technology.  

 

About Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW) is an internationally recognized landscape architecture firm with studios in New York City, Charlottesville VA, and Houston, TX. The firm has been instrumental in steering landscape architecture towards integrated, ecologically performative design, relying on science-based methodology and collaboration with a wide range of systems-experts. NBW has dramatically expanded the traditional role of landscape architecture into the areas of restoration ecology, urban planning, civil engineering, and agriculture.  NBW has been entrusted with the design of significant public parks and cultural institutions in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, placing 20 years of construction and design innovation in greater service to the public realm. The firm has worked in 25 states and 11 countries and garnered over 100 awards within the past 15 years, including the prestigious Amanda Burden Public Open Space Award for Citygarden in St. Louis MO. Current projects include Cornwall Park in Auckland New Zealand, Memorial Park in Houston, and Forsyth Park in Savannah. The work of the firm has been featured in numerous national and international publications including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and is the subject of a monograph published by Princeton Architectural Press.