“Landscape Architecture Needs You!” cried Nina Antonetti, Professor of Landscape Studies at Smith, at March 9th’s log lunch. Antonetti made an appealing case for liberal arts students to consider landscape architecture, but her real story was about one very talented individual: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Oberlander, winner of the International Jellicoe Award (the Nobel Prize of Landscape Architecture), still practices 70 to 80 hours a week at age 91. A world-renowned designer with a heavy reliance on research (for each project she leaves 15 boxes of research archives), Oberlander was an appealing candidate for Antonetti’s landscape studies. Antonetti discussed four of Oberlander’s buildings, demonstrating the importance of environmental science in her design process
1. Robinson Square, Vancouver: Civic Center.
This building was originally designed to be a skyscraper, but with Oberlander’s urging, it was turned on its side. She designed seven levels of walkable green roofs “long before we started talking about sustainable design.” With a waterfall that deadens the noise of the city “you forget that you’re in the heart of downtown Vancouver.”
2. Liberty Square, Vancouver: Public Library.
Oberlander conceived of this green roof as a Garden of Eden. Though budget cuts made the roof inaccessible, the garden remained a symbol of beauty in the center of the city. She mimicked the Canadian Fraser River, turning a roofscape into a riverscape.
3. Courtyard of the New York Times Building.
Oberlander was asked to design a courtyard at the center of a 53 story building. Talk about a “restrictive landscape.” During the design process, she consulted expert geologists, botanists, designers, and computer scientists. She asked computer scientists to model the solar movement over the base of a 53-story building in order to assess the amount of sun her plants would receive. She decided to create a simple landscape with three species: grass, moss, and birch trees, which “look fabulous in all seasons.” At the New York Times building, a native woodland landscape thrives in the heart of Manhattan.
4. Legislative Assembly, Yellowknife Canada.
Here Oberlander faced the challenges of building upon a degraded and isolated landscape in need of restoration. She decided to “roll up” the neighboring bog, keep it in storage, build, and then roll the bog back out, so as not to interfere with it. The building was designed with zinc, a locally mined mineral, and is described as a “living building” nestled into the landscape.