Firm

Jeff Aten joined Nelson Byrd Woltz in 2004 after earning master’s degrees in architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Virginia. He has worked on private projects varying in scale from small residential gardens to large conservation agriculture farms. In the public realm he has worked on municipal parks of just a couple acres up to 1,500 acres, and higher education teaching landscapes to master plans. His work, and his team’s work, has received accolades at the highest state, national and international levels. He has led the award-winning master plan for Memorial Park in Houston, TX and its implementation; the selected winning entry for the Ismaili Center Gardens in Houston, TX and the project’s construction; and various landscape gardens at the University of Virginia. He has served as the Vice-chair and Chair of the Charlottesville Tree Commission and loves to bike the rural roads at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

Recent work includes leading the broad design team implementing work as part of the Ten-Year Plan at Memorial Park that builds off the 2015 master plan. Completed to date are the award-winning Eastern Glades, Land Bridge and Prairie, and the Timing Track and Running Center. The design for Memorial Groves, a landscape honoring the park’s history as a World War I military training camp - Camp Logan - is underway.

Additionally Jeff is the Principal in Charge for the Contemplative Commons project being constructed at the University of Virginia, and the Ismaili Center Gardens in Houston TX, the first Ismaili cultural center in the United States.