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Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart.

Arthur Erickson

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Arthur Erickson
Age: 84 †
Born: 1924
Born: June 14
Died: 2009
Died: May 20
Architect
University Teacher
Vancouver
British Columbia
Arthur Charles Erickson
Arthur C. Erickson
Building
Poetic
Moving
Rare
Spirit
Architecture
Great
Case
Heart
Unique
Every
Products
Always
Move
Badass
Cases
Buildings

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The innovative spirit was America's strongest attribute, transforming everything into a brave new world, but there lingered an insecurity about the arts.
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Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within.
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Whenever we witness art in a building, we are aware of an energy contained by it.
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Today's developer is a poor substitute for the committed entrepreneur of the last century for whom the work of architecture represented a chance to celebrate the worth of his enterprise.
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We are stymied by regulations, limited choice and the threat of litigation. Neither consultants nor industry itself provide research which takes architecture forward.
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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.
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Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoric sense of freedom.
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No amount of thought can ever reveal what comes unexpectedly.
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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.
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Does an architecture to assuage the spirit have a place in all this? Unfortunately we are no longer the interpreters of our culture's myths but the followers of that dubious client, the developer, who has little patience with the art of architecture, the fine detail and obscure promise, which can upset his financial activity.
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God's designs may be frequent justification for our actions, but it is we, the self-made men, who take the credit.
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Profit and bottom line, the contemporary mantra, eliminates the very source of architectural expression.
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You have to see a building to comprehend it. Photographs cannot convey the experience, nor film.
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We find Japan a little more difficult to understand because it has proven its 20th century prowess though the ancient traditions still persist.
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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.
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Materialism has never been so ominous as now in North America, as management takes over.
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No wonder the film industry started in the desert in California where, like all desert dwellers, they dream their buildings, rather than design them.
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Western history has been a history of deed done, actions performed and results achieved.
Arthur Erickson
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We have today a fairly thorough knowledge of the early Greco-Roman period because our motivations are the same.
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Life is rich, always changing, always challenging, and we architects have the task of transmitting into wood, concrete, glass and steel, of transforming human aspirations into habitable and meaningful space.
Arthur Erickson