Drawing on philosophical writings ranging from the enlightenment and the romantics through to the contemporary world - including, among others, Rousseau, Hegel, and Thoreau - this article explores the civil dimensions of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander's gardens and landscape designs, arguing that Oberlander's landscapes are not merely visual delights, they are civil, humanist works. Surveying a selection of her designs, from collaborations with Arthur Erickson and Renzo Piano to her public housing projects and the playgrounds that she designed in-and-around her home of Vancouver, Canada, a secondary argument holds that Oberlander's gardens and landscapes are not merely aesthetic objects, but artworks, and they do the work of art as Hegel describes it: showing us something of our human spirit, specifically our creative and political geist.
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