Iris Miller
Iris Miller, ASLA, M.Arch., M.Ed., maintains a professional practice in landscape architecture and urban design, Iris Miller & Associates. She is an adjunct professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at The Catholic University of America, where she serves on the Alumnae Advisory Council and directs the Landscape Studies and Urban Design Studio (UIS), founded to partner with communities and government agencies. Her definitive book, Washington in Maps, 1606-2000 (Rizzoli International Publications, 2002), includes her own visionary map, “Visions of Washington, Composite Plan of Urban Interventions” (1991), which inspired a 1995 Library of Congress conference and publication, “Capital Visions,” on Washington and urbanism.
Ms. Miller has founded and directed many innovative design and educational programs, including Urban Design Charrettes (1982), a model multidisciplinary, professional concept that became a catalyst for citizen and student participation in community revitalization nationally and internationally. She received National Endowment for the Arts grants to promote “Charrette Programs” (1982) for design, urban planning, and community participation.
As an invited member of the U.S. George C. Marshall Delegation on Renewable Energy (2007) to Vienna, Austria, her focus was on Danube River watersheds, channelization and remediation for flood control, clean water, and recreation. Upon returning, she collaborated with the Embassy of Austria in organizing a symposium on applicable lessons learned in Austria for the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Among her invited professional honorary memberships are the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C.; International House of Japan; Society of Women Geographers; Lambda Alpha International; Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, Leadership Council; Fulbright Awards Jury for architects and landscape candidates, 1997-1999.
Statement: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander has been a pioneer and role model for both women and men in the broad field of landscape architecture, highlighting sustainability, environmental protections, and respect for nature. While she was among the first women in the profession to graduate as a trained landscape architect from Harvard, she is also a significant, talented designer who is recognized internationally. She has enthusiastically networked, mentored, and shared her insights and experiences, even when this was not a popular endeavor.
As a role model for women, among whom many are my close friends and colleagues (Pamela Burton, Sunny Scully Alsup, Diana Balmori) who have passed on this notable tradition to me and to so many others, I am immensely appreciative. It is also noteworthy that Cornelia is the sister-in-law of my esteemed former professor and close friend, George Oberlander, an urban planner and historian whose years of work at the National Capital Planning Commission in Washington, D.C., guided sustainable development and conservation of the historic character of our capital city, while he also embraced the influence of technology and modernism.
The artistic talent and humane qualities, the beauty of her landscapes and the strength of her character, make Cornelia Hahn Oberlander eminently qualified and deserving for this landscape architecture prize to be named in her honor.