Landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander awarded Vancouver’s highest honour before death at age 99

The world may possibly have misplaced a revolutionary and attained landscape architect from Vancouver and an esteemed member of the city’s Jewish neighborhood but her operate and contributions to urban areas go on to thrive and inspire for both current and future generations. 

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, who was born in Germany on June twenty, 1921, died in Vancouver at the age of 99 on May possibly 22.

Just prior to her loss of life, Vancouver city council permitted the Liberty of the Metropolis Award, the city’s most prestigious award for individuals who have garnered countrywide or worldwide renown and introduced recognition by their operate, for Oberlander on May possibly 18.

Oberlander’s nomination for this award was supported by the Jewish Federation of Vancouver, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia in honour of Jewish Heritage Month.  

“Cornelia Oberlander was 1 of Vancouver’s most renowned Jewish citizens, and throughout Jewish Heritage Month this May possibly, we honour her excellent achievements in bringing world-course landscape design to Canada, and to Vancouver in certain,” Mayor Kennedy Stewart said in a information release. “On behalf of Council, I prolong my deepest sympathies to her spouse and children and pals. May possibly her memory be a blessing.”

It was just 1 of a lot of awards and accolades that Oberlander gathered in excess of her illustrious profession.

Oberlander escaped Nazi persecution in Germany when she was 18 many years previous, and fled to England just before immigrating to the U.S., in which she was between the 1st course of gals to graduate from Harvard College with a diploma in landscape architecture.

Soon after she moved to Vancouver, she launched her individual landscape architecture company in 1953 and made her vision for eco-friendly towns and incorporating mother nature into urban environments.

Between her operate in shaping public areas in Vancouver are her popular use of logs for seating at public shorelines (1963), and her contributions to Robson Sq. and Regulation Courts (1983), the Vancouver Community Library Central Branch’s rooftop garden (1995), the VanDusen Botanical Yard Visitor Centre (2011), and UBC’s Museum of Anthropology and the C. K. Choi Developing.

Outside of Vancouver, she also made landscapes for housing and playgrounds throughout Canada, drafted countrywide rules for developing enjoy areas in Canada, and worked on projects these types of as the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Chancery in Washington, D.C.

She experienced also received the Margolese National Style for Dwelling Prize, the 2013 Mayor’s Arts Award for Life time Accomplishment, the Inside Designers of Canada/Global Inside Style Association Management Award of Excellence, Emily Carr University’s Physician of Letters, and was named to the Order of Canada in 2017.