The architect Arthur Erickson has died. His houses, carefully fitted into the Pacific Northwest landscape, were the Canadian equivalent to Wright’s Falling Water. Seeing his work in a book my Grandmother sent me for my 12th birthday was what made me want to be an architect.
Here are a couple of photos of his houses:
http://metropoliswest.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/graham41.jpg
http://www.andrewblum.net/photos/uncategorized/dwell1.jpg
Edited 6/2/2009 12:21 am ET by fingersandtoes
Replies
RIP, Arthur Erickson. Have you ever seen his home and garden? House is a converted garage, and the rest of the lot was given over to the most magnificent water garden I have ever seen. When he went bankrupt in the early '90s, he almost lost his home. Friends of his came to the rescue and raised the money to keep the property, which will, I believe, become a residence for visiting scholars.
I have mixed feelings about his architecture - I think it makes better sculpture than architecture, and I say this after several years of working at Simon Fraser University - looks wonderful in photographs, but is hellacious to work in - cold, dank, dark, and a muddle of interior alleys and funny little nooks that serve no earthly purpose. OTOH, his MacMillan Bloedel building is still one of my favourite Vancouver landmarks, and the Robson Square courthouse (which I understand is every bit the hellhole to work in that SFU is) is one of the most stunning bits of urban green space I've seen anywhere.
"And then, because of the transitive reactive Halstead-era seizing properties of the Aboriginal Double Humpback Turtle, I thought, what if I add one teaspoon of clarified monkey paste?" Anonymous blog comment on "America's Test Kitchen"
I used to live a block away from his house in the mid '80s. Never did get inside but after seeing photos of the garden I admit I did peek over his fence a few times.
Like you I am a bit ambivalent about some of his big buildings - the universities in particular- but his houses shed that sculptural quality and, unlike the work of so many of the other modernists, really engage their surrounding. A world away from how most of us live here.