Quotes by Arthur Erickson

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

The delusion of entertainment is devoid of meaning. It may amuse us for a bit, but after the initial hit we are left with the dark feeling of desolation.

Arthur Erickson

The innovative spirit was America's strongest attribute, transforming everything into a brave new world, but there lingered an insecurity about the arts.

Arthur Erickson

The tourist transports his own values and demands to his destinations and implants them like an infectious disease, decimating whatever values existed before.

Arthur Erickson

We are yet to have a conscience at all about the exploitation of human cultures.

Arthur Erickson

We can appreciate but not really understand the medieval town. We cannot comprehend its compactness, the contiguity of all its buildings as a single uninterrupted whole.

Arthur Erickson

Builders eventually took advantage of the look of modernism to build cheaply and carelessly.

Arthur Erickson

It is the mystery of the creative act that something other than our conscious self takes over.

Arthur Erickson

Our engineering departments build freeways which destroy a city or a landscape, in the process.

Arthur Erickson

The heart, not the head, must be the guide.

Arthur Erickson

Nearly all of the advances in structural and aesthetic innovation is coming from abroad.

Arthur Erickson

Nowhere has specialization penetrated so deeply into the building professions as North America.

Arthur Erickson

Our incapacity to comprehend other cultures stems from our insistence on measuring things in our own terms.

Arthur Erickson

The Achilles Heel of the Americas was the lack of cultural confidence typical of new settlers.

Arthur Erickson

The obsession with performance left no room for the development of the intuitive or spiritual impact of space and form other than the aesthetic of the machine itself.

Arthur Erickson

There is an increasing awareness of the interrelatedness of things. We are becoming less prone to accept an immediate solution without questioning its larger implications.

Arthur Erickson

We find Japan a little more difficult to understand because it has proven its 20th century prowess though the ancient traditions still persist.

Arthur Erickson

We regard those other cultures, such as that of India, where many people live and believe and behave much as they did 1,000 or 2,000 years ago, as undeveloped.

Arthur Erickson

Compared to industry in Europe or Japan, where industry was based on a craft tradition, we are sadly behind.

Arthur Erickson

Our universities advocate fragmentation in their course systems.

Arthur Erickson

The essentially unchangeable established order of things slowly disappeared and was forgotten for a while completely.

Arthur Erickson

We are guilty for sending teams into foreign countries to advise them how to be like us.

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