Your Cultural Concierge! VoCA offers critical commentary on the Canadian art scene, with a focus on Toronto. Featuring exhibition previews, critics picks, interviews and in-depth articles on art in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax.
May 21st, 2009 | Architecture, Art News: Canada, Vancouver and region
VoCA was sad to hear that the excellent Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson – rated by Phyllis Lambert as Canada’s finest – has died.
Erickson’s Hugo Eppich House, designed 1979. Image: arthurerickson.com
Take a tour of his wonderful homes and buildings on his comprehensive website, HERE.
Erickson’s Graham House, designed in 1962. Image: arthurerickson.com
Read the full obituary, HERE.
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...Read full bio
3 comments ↓
As a Canadian living in Washington, DC since 1991, I’ve been fortunate to have a wonderful example of Erickson’s work constantly in view. The Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC is a noticeable and memorable landmark and Erickson served his country well in creating such a distinguished building.
I remember first seeing Arthur Erickson’s work as a 10 year old. We had just moved to Vancouver and took a drive up Burnaby Mountain to Simon Fraser University. I thought it was the most wonderful building (or complex of buildings) I had ever seen. I developed a deep appreciation for his work as a student at Simon Fraser University, wandering through the courthouse, or sitting on the Robson Square steps, doing research at the UBC Museum of Anthropology and visiting the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Thirty years later I had the pleasure of meeting with Arthur while the Director of the Canadian Craft and Design Museum in Vancouver. We discussed the projects he loved and was most proud of, the projects that he was not so fond of, and of course his garden, perhaps the project that was the most personal and the one that he was the most passionate about. We discussed art, the relationship between art and architecture, museum buildings, art and architecture as experience, the fine line that defines and often separates fine art and craft and of course gardening.
We discussed how best to exhibit architectural work in a museum setting. Erickson’s buildings are as much about form, material and function as they are about how they are situated in the landscape. How do you bring this alive within the walls of a museum? We discussed mounting a retrospective, or focusing on certain bodies of work, but he came alive when we discussed the projects that were never built. The ones that clients did not approve or could not afford, the ones that were for him – not for a particular client. The ones that were in sketchbooks or still brewing in his head somewhere. This was the project that we were about to embark on together – an exhibit of the Unbuilt Erickson’s. A project that never happened as the Canadian Craft and Design Museum closed two months later in May 2002.
I was deeply saddened when I read that Arthur Erickson had left us. He was a delightful, passionate, articulate, talented and sensitive man that created a series of stunning architectural landmarks. I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to meet Arthur Erickson and will always regret that we did not have the opportunity to work together to bring his unbuilt projects to life.
Very sorry to hear of A. E.’s passing. I remeber
reading of his treatis on concrete way back…isn’t
he the one who called reinforced concrete, ‘the new marble’, or the ‘marble for our age’…something like
that….this was well in advance of the realizations of
Ando and perhaps even with Kahn.
Don’t know much of his work, but what I have seen
is compelling.
R.I.P
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