Pioneer Information
The firm originated with a solo practice established by landscape architect Ralph Cornell in 1933. Howard Troller and Samuel Bridgers began working with Cornell in 1953, and in 1955 they became his partners in the firm Cornell, Bridgers and Troller. With Cornell as the senior partner, Bridgers served as general manager and Troller as the director of design and planning. The firm completed several municipal projects throughout Los Angeles, including the City Hall East Mall, the campus for the Department of Water and Power, the Music Center, and the Civic Center Mall (renamed Grand Park), which was constructed above a parking garage. In the 1960s, the firm designed the Modernist Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden and the Inverted Fountain at the University of California, Los Angeles. Its work outside of California included the landscapes of the Ford Motor Company’s new General Office Building in Dearborn, Michigan, the Nile Hilton in Cairo, Egypt, and the University of Houston’s Cullen Family Plaza, in collaboration with Fred Buxton & Associates. In 1969, the firm became Cornell, Bridgers, Troller and Hazlett, with the addition of Jere Hazlett. Upon Cornell’s death in 1972, Bridgers took over as senior partner. Troller left the firm in 1978 to create Howard E. Troller Associates, and Bridgers left in 1979 to found William Bridgers and Associates.
