Profit and bottom line, the contemporary mantra, eliminates the very source of architectural expression. – 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
Architecture doesn’t come from theory. You don’t think your way through a building. – 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
The Achilles Heel of the Americas was the lack of cultural confidence typical of new settlers. – Arthur Erickson
Inspiration in Science may have to do with ideas, but not in Art. In art it is in the senses that are instinctively responsive to the medium of expression. – 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
Only when inspired to go beyond consciousness by some extraordinary insight does beauty manifest unexpectedly. – Arthur Erickson
The way of architecture is the quiet voice that underlies it and has guided it from the beginning. – 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
There is a single thread of attitude, a single direction of flow, that joins our present time to its early burgeoning in Mediterranean civilization. – 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
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 tourist transports his own values and demands to his destinations and implants them like an infectious disease, decimating whatever values existed before. – Arthur Erickson
The Renaissance is studded by the names of the artists and architects, with their creations recorded as great historical events. – Arthur Erickson
Builders eventually took advantage of the look of modernism to build cheaply and carelessly. – Arthur Erickson
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
It is the mystery of the creative act that something other than our conscious self takes over. – Arthur Erickson