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

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
America
Never
Ominous
Materialism
North
Management
Takes
Artist

More quotes by Arthur Erickson

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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
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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.
Arthur Erickson
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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.
Arthur Erickson
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There is a single thread of attitude, a single direction of flow, that joins our present time to it's early burgeoning in Mediterranean civilization...
Arthur Erickson
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Profit and bottom line, the contemporary mantra, eliminates the very source of architectural expression.
Arthur Erickson
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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.
Arthur Erickson
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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.
Arthur Erickson
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With production alone as the goal, industry in North America was dominated by the assembly line, standardization for mass consumption.
Arthur Erickson
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Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoric sense of freedom.
Arthur Erickson
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You have to see a building to comprehend it. Photographs cannot convey the experience, nor film.
Arthur Erickson
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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.
Arthur Erickson
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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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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
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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.
Arthur Erickson
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Western history has been a history of deed done, actions performed and results achieved.
Arthur Erickson
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The way of architecture is the quiet voice that underlies it and has guided it from the beginning.
Arthur Erickson
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We are yet to have a conscience at all about the exploitation of human cultures.
Arthur Erickson
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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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Whenever we witness art in a building, we are aware of an energy contained by it.
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.
Arthur Erickson