The definition is too passive, too narrow for Corner's liking. His mission is to move the background into the foreground, to start landscape architects creating the future rather than repairing the past. He wants to go beyond preserving parks and rainforests, beyond creating critter-friendly habitats and cheery outdoor entertainment spots. That's where professor Corner comes in. He's been teaching his heady theories to new generations of landscape architects, planners and educators for a dozen years now.
Corner returns to that particular phrase over and over.
It's the root of his work. Like centuries of artists before him, he knows that what we see determines what we think. To him, land is like paint, a medium of expression, though not a feckless or merely beautiful one. A lot of my work has to do with activating the landscape, inviting participation. Whether planning or designing a community park, urban plaza or waterfront redevelopment with his business partner, architect Stan Allen, Corner's goal is the same, to broaden our horizons.