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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.

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
Work
Committed
Entrepreneurship
Worth
Represented
Century
Substitute
Chance
Substitutes
Poor
Enterprise
Lasts
Entrepreneur
Last
Celebrate
Developer
Today
Architecture
Developers

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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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You have to see a building to comprehend it. Photographs cannot convey the experience, nor film.
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Our universities advocate fragmentation in their course systems.
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With production alone as the goal, industry in North America was dominated by the assembly line, standardization for mass consumption.
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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.
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Rationalism is the enemy of art, though necessary as a basis for architecture.
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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.
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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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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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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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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.
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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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Western history has been a history of deed done, actions performed and results achieved.
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We are yet to have a conscience at all about the exploitation of human cultures.
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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.
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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.
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We are not peddlers of the fashionable. We believe that good design defies fashion, is truly innovative, eminently sensible, yet a source of inspiration to those who have the pleasure of living with it.
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Materialism has never been so ominous as now in North America, as management takes over.
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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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Space has always been the spiritual dimension of architecture. It is not the physical statement of the structure so much as what it contains that moves us.
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