Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Biography
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander was born in Muelheim-Ruhr, Germany, in 1921. Her father died while she was still a child and her mother, a trained horticulturist, brought Cornelia and her sister to New York, later moving the family to a 200-acre farm in New Hampshire.
Oberlander attended Smith College in the early 1940s, attracted to its interdepartmental program in architecture and landscape architecture. She was strongly influenced by faculty member Kate Ries Koch, who taught at Smith from 1919 to 1952. From Koch, Oberlander learned that landscape architecture was not just about gardens. A paper she wrote on Pierre L鈥橢nfant鈥檚 plan for Washington, D.C., further demonstrated for her the scope of her profession and introduced her to issues of historic landscape preservation.
After gaining her diploma from Smith, Oberlander attended the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, graduating with a B.L.A. in 1947. By the time Oberlander arrived, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer were well established in the Architecture Department. Christopher Tunnard was teaching 'Modern Landscape Architecture.' The program encouraged collaboration across disciplines, which later would become an Oberlander trademark.
Following her graduation from Harvard, Oberlander worked briefly for landscape architect James C. Rose. From 1949 until 1950 she was at the Regional Plan Association in New York City. By 1951, Oberlander moved to Philadelphia to serve as Community Planner for the Citizens鈥 Council on City Planning. Noted architect Oskar Stonorov enlisted her for his Schuylkill Falls public housing project (1952-1955), with Dan