Артур Эриксон: Канадский архитектор и градостроитель

Canadian architect and urban planner

Arthur Charles Erickson (June 14, 1924 – May 20, 2009) was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied Engineering at the University of British Columbia and, in 1950, received his B. Arch. (Honours) from McGill University. He is known as Canada's most influential architect and was the only Canadian architect to win the American Institute of Architects AIA Gold Medal (in 1986, for the Embassy of Canada, Washington, D. C.). When told of Erickson's award, Philip Johnson said, "Arthur Erickson is by far the greatest architect in Canada, and he may be the greatest on this continent."

Erickson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 14, 1924. The son of Oscar Erickson and Myrtle Chatterson, he had an early interest, and talent for, painting and horticulture. As had his father, Erickson served in the Canadian Army, enlisting with the Canadian Army Intelligence Corps during World War II and serving in India, British Ceylon, and Malaysia. His post secondary studies included an undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, followed by the McGill University School of Architecture. After graduating from McGill in 1950, Erickson was granted a travel scholarship and traveled around the Mediterranean, studying climate and style in their relationship to architecture. He spent ten years teaching at the University of Oregon and the University of British Columbia, during which time he designed some of British Columbia's most important houses Canadian Homes Magazine called his 1959 Filberg House "Canada's most fabulous house". Erickson spent a few years at Thompson Berwick and Pratt and Partners then, in 1962, founded Erickson/Massey Architects with Geoffrey Massey. In 1963, Erickson and Massey submitted the winning design for Simon Fraser University.

Erickson's early buildings were often modernist concrete or wooden structures designed to respond to the natural conditions of their locations, especially climate. Erickson always integrated light and water features into his designs, along with the characteristic horizontal elements and terraces that came from the vernacular architecture of the Far East. His work balanced the style of modernism with an integration of the surrounding natural environment. Erickson constantly stressed the importance of greenery and water in all of his designs—as a teacher, he impressed this upon his students by making them draw blades of grass. The campus is landscaped to provide numerous small spaces for study; it in centre, Erickson placed a large rectangular pool containing an enormous block of Fraser River jade. Perhaps most significantly, academic disciplines are not isolated in separate buildings; the campus is a quadrangle designed so that people have to cross paths and interact with each other. The design was met with international acclaim, with one critic writing that it "answered questions about the nature of education".

The Museum of Anthropology was built in 1976, as an inclusion to the campus at the University of British Columbia. It houses artifacts and exhibits from world cultures, with an emphasis on Pacific Northwest cultures and the First Nations of British Columbia. This building blends methods of reinforced concrete and the traditional post and beam construction to articulate the structure. Oversized beams evoke a monumental feeling in many of Erickson's projects, calling on the size and scale of the trees found in the surrounding context. It is well known for Erickson’s use of concrete piers and large stretches of glass. By using concrete beams to represent de materialized logs and opening up the main atrium through expanses of glass, Erickson refers to the traditional notion of post and beam construction while integrating these characteristics into a modernist building.

Built in Vancouver in 1979 as a large civic center, Erickson’s design for Robson Square included waterfalls, a roof garden, several plazas, and stairs with ramps integrated within. This complex is one of the few in North America that integrates everything from public space and landscape to a set of surrounding buildings, spanning from the art gallery to the law courts. As time goes on, more additions are being created that seem to contrast the original intent of the design. Glass barriers were installed near the waterfall, preventing people from getting close to it, as well as on the edges of planters to prevent people from being able to sit on them. It has also since lost the outdoor restaurants, cinema, and large auditorium that once existed on the site. On the design of the roof garden, Erickson was assisted by his former student, architect Bing Thom; the landscape architect on Robson Square was Cornelia Oberlander.

Designed and built in the city of Toronto, Roy Thomson Hall was not designed to blend into its surroundings in order to be recognized as a landmark and home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Characteristic of Erickson's other designs with additions of water and other natural elements, this project includes a water feature of pond and rocks adjacent the building. Due to its placement below grade, it can go unnoticed to pedestrians walking by. The interior of the building was designed by Erickson's life partner Francisco Kipacz, the only Canadian published as "Designer of the Year" by the American Press Institute. The interior used a colour palette of grey and silver to harmonize with the concrete structure and create a peaceful atmosphere. This interior has since been retrofitted by the firm KPMB Architects, adding wood planking as well as purple and plum seating throughout the hall in attempt to make the atmosphere warmer.

The personal selection of Arthur Erickson as the architect for the Canadian Chancery in Washington, DC by then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was controversial, because Trudeau and Erickson were close friends and the Prime Minister overruled the objections and choices of the embassy's design committee. Erickson's biographer Nicholas Olsberg described the building as "making fun of the ridiculous terms to which buildings must adhere in Washington mocking the US and all of its imperial pretensions." In fact, Erickson had to obey his client's instructions, which were to express neighbourliness, openness and friendship, while adhering to the restrictions put in place by the 20 committees which regulate what happens on Pennsylvania Avenue. He blended the Neoclassicism of existing structures with the idiom of the Plantation house to create an expanse of space. Oberlander landscaped the courtyard with northern plants; Erickson had Haida artist Bill Reid create the massive sculpture Spirit of Haida Gwaii, the Black Canoe, which sits in the courtyard in a pool of water.

D. Eng. (Honoris Causa), Technical University of Nova Scotia, 1973
LL. D. (Honoris Causa), Simon Fraser University, 1973
LL. D. (Honoris Causa), McGill University, 1975
LL. D. (Honoris Causa), University of Manitoba, 1978
LL. D. (Honoris Causa), University of Lethbridge, 1981
D. Lit. (Honoris Causa), University of British Columbia, 1985
D. Lit. (Honoris Causa), Lakehead University, 1988
M. Arch., The School of Architecture at Taliesin, 2001

Erickson was the mentor of many other noted local architects and urbanists, including founding members of many of Vancouver's premier design oriented architectural firms. His buildings were also the subject of paintings by artists including Vancouver based Tiko Kerr. In 1971, he received the Royal Bank Award. In 1973, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1981. Erickson received the Chicago Architectural Award in 1984 alongside Philip Johnson and Joan Burgee. In 1986, he received the AIA Gold Medal, making him the first ever Canadian architect to receive this award. Erickson lived in Point Grey with his life partner and interior design collaborator, Francisco Kripacz. He died in Vancouver on May 20, 2009. His legacy still lives on through the Arthur Erickson Foundation. The foundation has been registered in the province of British Columbia since 1993 as a non profit charitable society. Founded originally as the Arthur Erickson House and Garden Foundation in 1993, the organization was created by Erickson's neighbour and fellow landscape architect Elizabeth Watts in order to raise money to buy Erickson's Point Grey home after he went bankrupt. The society succeeded and became owner of the Point Grey residence in Vancouver, BC. After his death, the foundation was expanded to offer education, research, and work in preservation with stewardship, education, and tours offered to keep people informed about the legacy of one of Canada's first internationally acclaimed architects.