Daniel Roehr, Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, remembers landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, who died at the age of 99 on 22 May 2021, one month short of her 100th birthday. The author states that Cornelia’s gift to all of us was her love for landscape architecture, and it is our obligation to continue to spread her wisdom to the generations of landscape architects to come.
Those who affectionately called her by her first name, ‘Cornelia’, expressed immense respect for what she had achieved as a global leader in landscape architecture, as well as gratitude for having known her. They also acknowledged her generosity, interest in meeting and connecting people, and her willingness to share her wealth of knowledge with everyone.
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Cornelia was a global player in landscape architecture for over 70 years. She was educated at Harvard by some of the 20th century’s most respected thinkers in the world of design, including Walter Gropius. After graduation she trained with two of landscape architecture’s most famous practitioners, James Rose and Dan Kiley. As the 6th woman to study landscape architecture at Harvard, she paved the way for the numerous women leading the way in the field today. She served as a role model, providing confidence and support for woman in a profession which was until then predominantly male.
Cornelia was a landscape architect who lead by example, and by the highest standards of the design process. She researched each project carefully which can be read about in Susan Herrington’s book, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Making the Modern Landscape. She was always two steps ahead of the day’s design discourse, which is evident when one reviews the design topics she began to address as early as the middle of the 20th century, long before others did. These include community engagement when designing outdoor spaces for housing, developing matrices for different play area programs, supporting the design of play areas to be more engaging for children and parents through their design elements and site grading, and, working together with architect Arthur Erickson on the design of the UBC Anthropology Museum in the late 1970s, acknowledging the respectful integration of First Nations’ traditions. This was achieved in the building’s form, by using native and First Nations’ plants, and in expressing the healing of the land with her gently graded integration of the building within the landscape.
Solving both contemporary and future design problems
In recent years she worked in the Northwest Territories, invited by the First Nations to design landscapes for schools and public buildings. Here she incorporated First Nations and native planting palettes and landscape architecture interventions sensitive to the local climate, climate change and the people living there. In conversations with her, she expressed her deep fondness and gratitude for the Northwest Territories and the work she was allowed to engage in there. Cornelia’s design talent, at all scales, of understanding local people, the environment and its context was unmatched anywhere else in the profession. Cornelia led the way in solving both contemporary and future design problems during her 70-year-long career.
Complex and forward-thinking technologies in green roof design
She received all the prestigious local, national and international prizes and awards available to honour landscape architects, as well as many honorary doctorates and the highest civil honours from Canada and British Columbia. Vancouver’s rarely bestowed Freedom of the City Award was also awarded to her. She collaborated with some of the most prominent architects in both this and the last century and was responsible for numerous ground-breaking projects including complex and forward-thinking technologies in green roof design, playground design, public open space design (including the ‘stramp’ at Robson Square), planting design and the use of native plants.
“Cornelia lived landscape architecture”
Apart from her ground-breaking designs, she was very generous with her time when students, professionals and researchers wanted to share their passion for landscape architecture with her. Until quite recently Cornelia would share her wisdom, gladly explaining her projects on site to our UBC students, dropping in on studio reviews, encouraging students with her comments, visiting most of the professional lectures offered at SALA and presenting her projects to our students in her lectures. Cornelia lived landscape architecture. Landscape architecture was her vehicle for connecting, enticing passion, initiating conversation and encouraging political activism to protect nature and the environment, including people in Canada and around the world.
Cornelia fled Germany with her mother and sister in 1938, two weeks after Kristallnacht, when the Nazis burned down the country’s synagogues, an experience which was deeply rooted in her conscious. In numerous conversations we discussed these events, and being both German and Canadian, and sensitized to the subject, I was humbled to hear how much she kept the German culture, language and connection alive despite her family having to flee the country. We enjoyed speaking German on and off and shared the humour of the German language.
“Grading is more important than planting.”
Cornelia radiated positiveness. She made everyone who met her excited about landscape architecture, history and the environment, and was especially interested in how people could engage with the environment. Every time I left her house, or after we had dinner together or she came to one of my parties, or we sat in her garden enjoying the plants and the grading of her garden, (she always said: “Grading is more important than planting.” and I agreed) I felt invigorated and inspired. Just to be with her and listen, watch and learn was a gift that cannot be easily expressed in words. Cornelia’s gift to all of us was her love for landscape architecture, and it is our obligation to continue to spread her wisdom to the generations of landscape architects to come.
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Want to learn more about great women architects who have been working, observing and thinking about the transformations shaping the cities of today and tomorrow for over 70 years? Watch the film City Dreamers by Joseph Hillel. Among others it tells the story of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, who reinvented how we develop urban green spaces and introduced the concept of green roofs in several major cities.
Daniel Roehr, Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture of the University of British Columbia, remembers his last years‘ pre-Christmas conversation with landscape architect great Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Over Lebkuchen (gingerbread) they talked about career starting points, inspiration, design principles and the role of landscape architecture in tackling climate change.
It’s almost a year ago when I met Cornelia Hahn Oberlander during our traditional German Christmas tea with “Nürnberger Lebkuchen”, which we enjoy once a year at Point Grey in Vancouver where she lives. It happened after the news was announced that a prize equivalent to the architects Pritzker Prize will be created in her name and be awarded every two years starting in 2021 to a deserving landscape architect word wide. This prize has a value of 100.000 USD and will be the highest award the international community of landscape architects can bestow upon a person. There is no doubt, that there is no better landscape architecture visionary than Cornelia Hahn Oberlander deserving this honour. Cornelia has been awarded most, if not all, international prizes, awards, honoree doctorates available including the highest category, The Companions of the Order of Canada for the work she did for the field of landscape architecture throughout her career, spanning more than 70 years of practice. She is a pioneer, visionary and passionate about the field of landscape architecture and is still practicing, lecturing and turned 99 in 2020.
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“She is a pioneer, visionary and passionate about the field of landscape architecture and is still practicing, lecturing and turned 99 in 2020.”
The place where she lives, Point Grey in Vancouver, is near The University of British Columbia where I also teach as a professor since 2006, and where she holds an honorary professorship, and where she has been a lifelong supporter of our students and faculty.
Visiting her home always reminds me of a floating slender rectangular two-story wooden box like structure, with more large glazed panels from floor to ceiling then solid walls, and opening up to the surrounding nature. A ravine with a stream runs below her house, experienced in full, once one passes through the entrance door. Everything inside floats, the stairs, the walkway on the second floor, the walls and ceilings. The horizontal elements open up to the sky, welcoming the light in, while the vertical elements guide the views to the garden she designed, and also to spectacular views of nature surrounding the property and small peaks on islands rising above the distant Pacific Ocean.
“Her home is an architectural gem, a building which respects the landscape.”
It is an architectural gem, a building which respects the landscape, floating above, barely touching the ground only with small stilts, creating an atmosphere like a child’s small footsteps walking through a precious planted forest floor. And the buildings front garden is a sensitive ‘Cornelia graded’ undulating landscape which respects the buildings location and its natural context, protecting the existing trees and the grading. This is the way Cornelia always designs with respect to and for nature, be it a garden, a green roof, a park or a public square.
“Landscape architects need to study the plants behavior with climate change and use wildin.”
Asking her about climate change and the role of the landscape architects, she replied: “landscape architects need to study the plants behavior with climate change and use wilding – plants that establish themselves”. It is a timely answer, as to adapt plants and their habitat to the changing climate worldwide is important for designers today and in the future. Cornelia is always informed about current environmental issues, and shows me the newest books she is reading. When asking her about who influenced her she replies: “her mother Beate Hahn”. Beate Hahn wrote gardening books while living in Berlin, was an avid gardener, educator and a good friend of Karl Förster. But her mother was strict and when they immigrated to the US, Cornelia had to find her own path to landscape architecture. My colleague Susan Herrington has written a very detailed book about Cornelia’s life called: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Making the Modern Landscape, University Virginia Press 2013 which one should read.
“Already as an 11-year-old child she was inspired by ‘greening the world’”
Asking her ‘why landscape architecture’ she replied: “that already as an 11-year-old child she was inspired by ‘greening the world’”. Also, the experience of being painted with her sister Charlotte, by Sabine Lepsius, a German portrait painter (1864 – 1942) against a forest background had a big impact on her, how she would perceive landscape. This portrait can be seen in the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
When asking about her ‘design principles’ she replied what is important is: “the concept, design development, implementation and site supervision”, and followed up answering to my question on‘obstacles for the profession’ in summarizing: “many obstacles exist for the young professionals with ‘bureaucracy’ and we need to change the attitude for landscapes”. By this she meant, that landscape architecture has a big role to play in design today, it’s not a niche subject anymore.
“Our focus should be on the ‘practice’ of the field, and bureaucratic hurdles should be kept to a minimum.”
Although the conversation was short, her message for the profession is clear, landscape architecture is practiced inside and outside, its medium – the plants and soils are alive, and the landscapes system players, such as climate are changing and we need to adapt. Our focus should be on the ‘practice’ of the field, and bureaucratic hurdles should be kept to a minimum.
Landscape architecture has finally been recognized as an important influential design field worldwide. It is through visionaries, like Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and others, whose work inspires landscape architects to continue to practice and also research ways to improve this practice in this much needed profession. The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Prize is a ‘giant leap’ for the international landscape architecture profession fifty years after Neil Armstrong said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
