1. Cornelia Oberlander was the niece of educationalist Kurt Hahn, the founder of Schule Schloss Salem in Germany, Gordonstoun in Scotland, and UWC Atlantic College in the UK; as well as the niece of Elisabeth Jastrow, the German-born American classical archaeologist.
When Cornelia Oberlander was 18, being Jewish, her sister, her mother, and she escaped Nazi persecution after the "Kristallnacht" pogrom in 1938 by fleeing to England.
Cornelia Oberlander's mother had a truck farm in New Hampshire during the war, which Oberlander worked on.
Cornelia Oberlander had come to America with the hopes of exploring the professional educational opportunities that involved the creation of parks and green spaces, and pursued that objective in American colleges.
In 1944 Cornelia Oberlander was awarded a BA degree from Smith College and, in 1947, she was among the first class of women awarded degrees in landscape architecture by Harvard.
Cornelia Oberlander began work with Louis Kahn and Oscar Stonorov in Philadelphia and then with landscape architect Dan Kiley in Vermont.
Cornelia Oberlander founded a small landscape architecture firm in Vancouver.
Cornelia Oberlander then became interested in the modern art movement led by BC Binning and Ned Pratt, which combined art and architecture to address the connections between urbanism and surrounding natural settings.
Cornelia Oberlander later practiced on a more commercial scale, working with architects and other professionals from various disciplines to create aesthetic solutions for challenging projects.
Cornelia Oberlander received the "rare and exceptional honour" of being elected to both the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects' College of Fellows and the American Society of Landscape Architects' Council of Fellows.
Cornelia Oberlander died of COVID-19 in Vancouver, British Columbia on 22 May 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia, one month shy of her 100th birthday.
Cornelia Oberlander produced landscape designs for private residences, playgrounds, urban parks, and other public spaces, as well as major projects including landscaping for:.