| Defined by the National Park Service as "a geographic area, including both cultural and natural resources...associated with a historic event, activity, or person or exhibiting other cultural or aesthetic values", cultural landscapes are a physical manifestation of how we confer social meaning and perceive ourselves within the structure of the natural world. As cultural landscapes embody our legacy and have the potential to invoke a deep sense of place in an increasingly urbanized world, our decisions as landscape architects consequentially shape how they are understood, valued, and transitioned into the future. As we determine what voice to reveal and what constitutes authenticity in the cultural landscapes of Southern California, the early work of Ralph Dalton Cornell is particularly telling. In 1912, at the age of 22, Ralph Dalton Cornell published an article in the Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany entitled "Wanted: A Genuine Southern California Park", in which he was far ahead of his time for championing the concepts of providing park space in intelligent city planning, understanding and promoting the native landscape of Southern California, and demanding the notion of distinctiveness in landscape design. In this study, the term "genuine" is evaluated through the lens of Cornell's professional evolution and early work in the context of the Southern California region, with in depth case studies provided for his work at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve on the northern City limits of San Diego and Beverly Gardens in the City of Beverly Hills just west of downtown Los Angeles. Ralph Cornell's work is then reinterpreted through contemporary concepts of authenticity, legibility, sustainability, and urban vitality. Through this discourse, we get a sense of how these cultural landscapes are important, how they contribute to our cities today, and how they may be preserved and interpreted as our heritage for future generations. |
