Hidden Gems: Meet Daniel Woodroffe of dwg.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Woodroffe.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in Cambridge, England, and received my degrees at Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. In a classic example of polar opposites, I found myself in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on a student exchange, and the incredible experience I had there led me to Austin via a detour in Dallas. Twenty-five years later, my roots are firmly planted in east Austin with my wife, Terry, our kid, Ethan, and the world’s largest English Labrador, Pancake.

I took a leap of faith in 2010 to start my own firm, and it was the most liberating moment of my career. dwg. was founded on the basis that, as landscape architects, we need to be more focused and deliberate rather than being generalists. Thus we coined the mantra of being experts of the Urban Architectural Landscape, which immediately thrust us into urban design, green infrastructure and the interface between built form, the public realm and nature and ecology.

As we gained a reputation for being a sustainably grown design firm, the relationships we established with our clients and peers led to us being taken around the globe for projects such as ecological restorations of former petrochemical tank farms; rooftop gardens in New York; high-rise hotels in San Francisco, adaptive- reuse developments in Raleigh; to sustainable cities in the Middle East.

What started on my dining room table has blossomed into a firm of nearly 40 landscape architects, architects, artists and graphic designers that are wickedly creative and in my humble opinion, the best in the business. I am so, so proud of the team we have and of the experiences, expertise and influence we have gained at a mere 12 years old. I believe we’re just getting started!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Growing a small business is never a smooth road for anyone. But you learn to juggle (figuratively, though knowing a good party trick can be helpful as I have come to find) and trust the brilliant minds you’ve brought on board.

As we have grown and gained increased credibility, we are often thrust into a pond of seasoned, larger and older competing firms. The challenge of finding our “edge” and the unique perspective that enables us to offer up a remarkably different cup of tea renews itself with each project bid. Even with 25 years of professional practice, I still feel like every day is a new opportunity to learn and grow.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
On paper, I am the president and founder of the firm. In reality, my day-to-day work is part rainmaker, visioner, sketcher, negotiator, alchemist and designer, and sometimes the sum of its parts all at once. I have a staggeringly talented team around me — all brilliant at what they do and ultimately all helping to guide and grow the firm onwards and upwards.

When this adventure started, it was based upon making a difference with a clear agenda of social and environmental resilience and positive change within the public realm of the Urban Architectural Landscape. As we have grown, we have refined and built upon those founding principles and have become more and more laser-focused around our shared vision and responsibility of art and design, climate action and resiliency.

We are particularly proud of the consultants and other brilliant minds we collaborate with that bring to the table a shared focus on ecology and habitat restoration, water resource management, resilient green infrastructure and social equity. The chemistry of that collaborative spirit and our brilliant team is what sets us apart from the competition.

What’s next?
“Are you serious? You’re taking the entire firm to England?” We have gotten that question quite a bit as news has spread of our upcoming “field trip.” Yes, dwg. is celebrating our ten-year anniversary (albeit two years COVID delayed) across the pond.

And yes — all 37 of us are headed to the U.K. in June for a week of new perspectives, culture, fun, and, most importantly, in celebration of a decade plus of hard work and accomplishments. We have dubbed it “England 2020 (+2).”

For me, personally, landscape architecture is the culmination of celebrating, perceiving and engaging within the public realm, the built environment, nature — all through a lens that is focused by the places, cultures, and experiences around us. England 2020(+2) is about broadening perspectives and experiences for the entire dwg. family.

So, our Managing Principal (and my longtime friend), Eric Schultz and I hatched this plan as a unique way to celebrate this milestone anniversary through the lens into what makes me tick — the places, people, history and landscapes that put me on the path I walk today and the cornerstones on what the firm was founded upon.

Without any doubt, it is vital to thank our amazing clients, colleagues, partners and consultants for helping make this possible. They have enabled the firm to be who we are today and to assemble a group of 37 wickedly talented individuals that are working on projects all over the world.

We have also not taken our carbon footprint lightly. For the last three years, we have been planning and understanding how to offset the impact this trip will have. This excursion represents an important milestone in our environmental policy. We strive to make every project as sustainable as possible, reducing impact on resources and aspiring to be carbon neutral. To that end, in 2020, we started a partnership with TreeFolks to utilize their Carbon+ Credit program to not only fully offset the carbon produced from this trip but to offset the carbon footprint of the entire firm each year moving forward. We have made a commitment to plant hundreds of trees over the next ten years, improve communities such as Community First! Village, and continually reduce our carbon footprint towards net zero.

Contact Info:

• Email: inquiry@studiodwg.com
• Website: www.studiodwg.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiodwg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studiodwg/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/studiodwg_atx

Image Credits
Daniel, Ethan and Terry Woodroffe – courtesy of Daniel Woodroffe
Eric Schultz, dwg. Managing Principal, and dwg. Founder, Daniel Woodroffe – courtesy of Annie Ray
dwg. staff – courtesy of Annie Ray
823 Congress Ave. – courtesy of dwg.
fareground at 111 Congress – courtesy of Leonid Furmansky
Music Lane – courtesy of dwg.
Music Lane – courtesy of dwg.
si-glo at Creekshow – courtesy of Patrick Wong
Springdale Green – courtesy of dwg.
dwg. staff at TreeFolks Community First Village Tree Planting – courtesy of TreeFolks