Episode 53: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander
Cornelia Ann Hahn was born on June 20, 1921 in Mulheim-an-der-Ruhr, Germany, near Dusseldorf into a Jewish family. Cornelia’s family moved to the Berlin area and she grew up there during the Weimar period and eventually the rise of Nazi Germany. Cornelia’s father was an engineer who had studied in the US and was good friends with Lillian Gilbreth. Unfortunately her father died in an avalanche in 1933, so Cornelia’s mother worked to get her and her daughters out of Germany. They succeeded in 1938 with the help from Lillian and other of her father’s contacts. They eventually settled in New Hampshire on a farm. Cornelia’s mother was a horticulturist and the girls grew up gardening. Cornelia knew she wanted to be a landscape architect and in 1940, she enrolled at Smith College and the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Design. When the US entered WWII in 1941, the Cambridge School was absorbed into the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Cornelia would graduate from the GSD in 1945. While at Harvard, she met her husband Peter Oberlander, an Austrian urban planning student. Peter was offered a job to teach in Vancouver, Canada so the couple moved there in 1953. Cornelia opened her own landscape architecture firm out of their house and continued to operate it there for over 50 years. She would go on to design many projects including Robson Square in Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library’s green roof, and the New York Times Building Courtyard among others. Cornelia was a huge advocate for sustainable design and particularly focused on stormwater management. She also became well known for her playground designs after her design for the World’s Fair Exposition in Montreal in 1967. She was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects medal in 2021, the Order of British Columbia in 2016, and made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2018. Cornelia passed away on May 22, 2021 in Vancouver at 99 years old.
Caryatid: Mikyoung Kim
Mikyoung Kim is from Hartford, Connecticut. She received a bachelors in Sculpture and Art History from Oberlin College in 1989. She then decided to study landscape architecture at the Harvard GSD. In 1994, she opened her own landscape architecture firm in Boston. Her firm focuses on restorative landscape designs. They are working to address environmental and health related issues through their designs. She continues to use her sculpture background as well in her designs.
References
Birnbaum, Charles A. “Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Oral History, Interview Transcript.” The Cultural Landscape Foundation, 5 Mar. 2008, www.tclf.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Oberlander-Transcript.pdf.
Ditmars, Hadani. “Landscape Architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander on Why It Should Be Easier to Be Green.” Wallpaper*, 8 Mar. 2021, www.wallpaper.com/architecture/landscape-architect-cornelia-hahn-oberlander-interview-canada.
Green, Jared. “Interview with Mikyoung Kim, FASLA.” American Society of Landscape Architects, 2017, www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=52172.
Green, Penelope. “Cornelia Oberlander, a Farsighted Landscape Architect, Dies at 99.” The New York Times, 10 June 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/arts/design/cornelia-oberlander-dead-coronavirus.html.
Herrington, Susan, and Marc Treib. Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Amsterdam University Press, 2014, www.google.com/books/edition/Cornelia_Hahn_Oberlander/qSy8AAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.
Hickman, Matt. “Canadian Landscape Architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Dies at 99.” The Architect’s Newspaper, 10 June 2021, www.archpaper.com/2021/05/canadian-landscape-architect-cornelia-hahn-oberlander-dies-at-99.
Hill, John. “Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (1921–2021).” World-Architects, 25 May 2021, www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/headlines/cornelia-hahn-oberlander-1921-2021.
Lewis, Anna M. “Cornelia Hahn Oberlander” Women of Steel and Stone: 22 Inspirational Architects, Engineers, and Landscape Designers. 192-202. United States: Chicago Review Press, 2017.
“Mikyoung Kim Design.” Mikyoung Kim Design, myk-d.com. Accessed 16 July 2022.
“Vancouver Public Library (Library Square Building).” Greenroofs.Com, 11 Sept. 2018, www.greenroofs.com/projects/vancouver-public-library-library-square-building.
