About Arthur Erickson:

Arthur Charles Erickson was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied Asian languages at the University of British Columbia, and later earned a degree in architecture from McGill University.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoric sense of freedom.

Arthur Erickson

This great, though disastrous, culture can only change as we begin to stand off and see... the inveterate materialism which has become the model for cultures around the world.

Arthur Erickson

What is the thread of western civilization that distinguished its course in history? It has to do with the preoccupation of western man with his outward command and his sense of superiority.

Arthur Erickson

Western history has been a history of deed done, actions performed and results achieved.

Arthur Erickson

No wonder the film industry started in the desert in California where, like all desert dwellers, they dream their buildings, rather than design them.

Arthur Erickson

After 1980, you never heard reference to space again. Surface, the most convincing evidence of the descent into materialism, became the focus of design. Space disappeared.

Arthur Erickson

Tahiti has been spoiled for many years, but Bali is one of the few cultures with origins in one of the great ancient cultures which is still alive.

Arthur Erickson

The great dream merchant Disney was a success because make-believe was what everyone seemed to need in a spiritually empty land.

Arthur Erickson

The Renaissance is studded by the names of the artists and architects, with their creations recorded as great historical events.

Arthur Erickson

Roman civilization had achieved, within the bounds of its technology, relatively as great a mastery of time and space as we have achieved today.

Arthur Erickson

God's designs may be frequent justification for our actions, but it is we, the self-made men, who take the credit.

Arthur Erickson

We have today a fairly thorough knowledge of the early Greco-Roman period because our motivations are the same.

Arthur Erickson

No phenomenon can be isolated, but has repercussions through every aspect of our lives. We are learning that we are a fundamental part of nature's ecosystems.

Arthur Erickson

I plead for conservation of human culture, which is much more fragile than nature herself. We needn't destroy other cultures with the force of our own.

Arthur Erickson

There is little doubt that we are in the midst of a revolution of a much more profound and fundamental nature than the social and political revolutions of the last half century.

Arthur Erickson

Ancient Rome was as confident of the immutability of its world and the continual expansion and improvement of the human lot as we are today.

Arthur Erickson

Bankers cannot afford to be concerned with only the economic aspects of projects. There may be serious implications on the natural environment, the urban environment, on human culture.

Arthur Erickson

Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within.

Arthur Erickson

Materialism has never been so ominous as now in North America, as management takes over.

Arthur Erickson

No amount of thought can ever reveal what comes unexpectedly.

Arthur Erickson

Profit and bottom line, the contemporary mantra, eliminates the very source of architectural expression.

Arthur Erickson

Author Bio

NameArthur Erickson
DescriptionCanadian architect and urban planner
AliasesArthur Charles Erickson
BornJune 14, 1924
DiedMay 20, 2009
CountryCanada
ProfessionArchitect
AwardsAIA Gold Medal; Molson Prize; Companion Of The Order Of Canada

Quotes by Arthur Erickson

About Arthur Erickson:

Author Bio