Gone
When I opened up my copy of the Globe and Mail on Saturday, May 19, 2021, I found out that Canada’s best landscape architect, Cornelia Oberlander, had lost her battle with COVID-19. Sadly, I never got to meet her; I saw her once at the Vancouver Public Library after the rooftop got an extensive upgrade. She was there as a guest; and I was curious to find out what the rooftop upgrades were like.
Now, let’s back up a bit. I used to maintain the rooftop garden at the Vancouver Public Library with bi-weekly services for years. Once, my then-boss told me that they had pushed the old woman up on the rooftop and she liked my maintenance work. That was when I first heard of Cornelia Oberlander.
Dirty work
The word maintenance sounds very nice but what actually happened on that library rooftop wasn’t very sexy. Back then I had two little kids at home and well-paid weekend work was exactly what I needed to feed them. So, every spring I would run my fingers through the hundreds of ornamental grasses to comb the dead out of them. And in the process I broke almost every helper brave enough to spend a day with me there.
The rest of the season mainly involved weeding with buckets and tarps. That’s the kind of work that most landscapers detest. I’m not one of them and it showed because Cornelia liked my work.
Our only distractions from monotonous weeding were birds nesting on the rooftop and the discovery of dusty copies of men’s magazines in the rooftop shed. Then there was the occasional scantily clad woman visible in a nearby residential tower apartment.
Why I love Cornelia
This is why I think Cornelia Oberlander and I could have been good friends. She had this great habit of walking and enjoying the places she designed. She would note how the plants were doing and how the landscape was evolving. Of course, I’m not an architect, but when I install plants in the landscape, I want them to do well. I feel responsible for them even though it’s up to strata councils to monitor their installs.
To learn about Cornelia Oberlander’s life and accomplishments, see the Globe and Mail article or do a Google search.
Rest in peace, Cornelia.
