Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: A Role Model in Environmentally and Socially Conscious Landscape Architecture

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, a German-born Canadian landscape architect, was recognised as a national treasure in Canada. She was honored with the Inaugural Governor General’s Medal in Landscape Architecture in 2016 by the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA). In 2019, the Cultural Landscape Foundation established the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize in her honor. She was born in Muelheim-Ruhr, Germany in June 1921 and immigrated to the United States in late 1938. She was amongst the first female landscape architects upon graduating from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design’s Landscape Architecture Program in 1947. In 1953, with her husband H.Peter Oberlander, who set up the first city planning school in Canada at UBC, the pair moved to Vancouver.

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander’s designs emphasized exposure to nature for its healing effect, as well as providing opportunities for social interaction in public spaces. Moreover, she recognized early on the climate change crisis and tried to mitigate its effects through her green designs. Some of her noteworthy projects include: the landscape of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver’s Robson Square Provincial Government Center and Courthouse Complex, the Canadian Chancery in Washington D.C, and the Children’s Creative Center for Expo 67 in Montreal. Unfortunately, after practicing landscape architecture for more than sixty years, she died from complications of COVID-19 in May 2021 at the age of 99 in Vancouver.

Public Rooftop Garden and Respite in the City: Vancouver Public Library Central Branch Rooftop Garden

Rooftop gardening is trendy in Vancouver and the city encourages people to grow plants on rooftops, community gardens, balconies, etc. One such rooftop can be found at the Vancouver Public Library (VPL), the unique building designed by Canadian architect icon Moshe Safdie, was completed in 1995. It is one of Vancouver’s downtown landmarks, it catches the eye, resembling the Colosseum in Rome. VPL’s green roof takes up 20,000 square feet of the available 28,000 square feet at the top of the structure. The roof was initially transformed to a functioning green roof that was inaccessible to the public. Recently an expansion project of the eighth and nineth floor made two new publicly accessible outdoor rooftop spaces. The first, two large outdoor terraces on the north and south of the eight floor, each being approximately 4,700 square feet. The second, a public rooftop garden on the ninth floor, about 7,400 square feet, which provides an outdoor public green space as a retreat from the busy downtown.

The Phillips, Hager and North Garden on the ninth floor is the first publicly accessible rooftop garden in Vancouver. It provides a natural meeting place in downtown with its great vantage views. To recognize their positive impact on the city of Vancouver through their charitable pursuits, the garden is named in honor of city builders and philanthropists Art Phillips, Bob Hager and Rudy North. VPL’s rooftop public garden is designed by landscape architect icon Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, who was the original designer of its green roof. It features green and blue fescue, reflecting the shape of the Fraser River. The plants that can be found in it are native to the southwest region of British Columbia, resistant to drought and requiring little maintenance. Moreover, a solar photovoltaic system, including 52 solar panels, 350 watts each, is installed along the outside of the rooftop garden. They provide renewable energy and generate approximately 16,500 KW of electricity per year, enough to power the LED lights of the ninth floor of the library. As many other green rooftops, this garden benefits the city of Vancouver in many ways, from helping with rainwater, regulating temperature, improving air quality, to providing a habitat for coexistence with birds and insects, and creating an informal outdoor public space.

Figure 1. Vancouver Public Library Rooftop Public Garden. Image source: Sahar Alinezhad, Vancouver, 2021.

Figure 2. Vancouver Public Library Rooftop Public Garden, view of the BC Place. Image source: Sahar Alinezhad, Vancouver, 2021.

The 15-Minute City: Re-Planning for a Human-Scale Urban Future

Carlos Moreno of Pantheon Sorbonne University in Paris draws our attention to “the 15-minute city”. Due to Moreno, this concept of cities goes in the opposite direction of modern urbanism, it attempts to provide a human-scale urban life experience. The 15-minute city can provide its citizens a walkable or bikeable access to meet their needs within a 15-minute distance. Hence, Moreno calls for rethinking our cities around four guiding principles, seen as key building blocks to this concept: Ecology, Proximity, Solidarity, and Participation. Furthermore, Moreno illustrates three key features of the 15-minute city as the following: “First, the rhythm of the city should follow humans, not cars. Second, each square meter should serve many different purposes. Finally, neighborhoods should be designed so that we can live, work and thrive in them without having to constantly commute elsewhere”.

Furthermore, Andres Duany and Robert Steuteville in their article on “defining the 15-minute city”, draw attention to incorporating transit into the 15-minute city. They explain the necessity of a walkable urban fabric, considering the quality of the pedestrian experience, to make the 15-minute city work. In terms of transit services, they consider two kinds of stations that need to be incorporated: community and commuter transit stops. The former is accessed through “human-powered mobility” or active transportation (walking and biking), and the latter by cars. They illustrate that the community and commuter transit stops should be located at the center and the edge of the 15-minute city successively to allow access to distant locations.

Moving towards post pandemic recovery, the 15-minutes city concept is relevant. It delivers wellbeing, boosts local economies, encourages community building, provids climate benefits, etc. Hence, by promoting self-sufficient communities, the 15-minutes city ensures a sustainable and liveable urban future.

Tactical Urbanism Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is a warning to our cities to be prepared for the next crisis. It teaches us lessons on the necessity of maintaining strong community bonds and the importance of spaces for developing and benefiting from such bonds. Due to lockdowns, people had more time to explore their own neighborhoods, which led to a greater recognition of the need for access to community hubs within walking distance. We also witnessed experiments in “Tactical Urbanism”, as streets in cities all around the world were given over to cyclists, pedestrians, and restaurants to meet the spatial requirements for physical distancing. Tactical Urbanism, also known as Guerrilla Urbanism, refers to an approach to modify urban built environment, using temporary, low-cost, and scalable interventions to improve local neighborhoods or city gathering places.

In response to the pandemic, cities had to quickly repurpose public spaces to facilitate outdoor gatherings. OpenNorfolk Program, in Norfolk, Virginia, applied tactical urbanism tools to benefit its residents. This program implemented three kinds of projects to address the problems caused by the public health crisis: 1) “Streateries” or outdoor dining in the street, which allowed small businesses to continue operating safely. 2) Prioritizing pedestrian mobility and providing safe outdoor activities through changing streetscape. This slowed down traffic and encouraged pedestrian activity. 3) “Neighborhood Spots” – pop-up community squares or hubs, which kept talented artists employed. Therefore, OpenNorfolk Program, as the result of a successful collaboration among designers, city staff, and other partners, helped Norfolk city back on its feet, and lifted the spirits of the residents in the time of pandemic.