ARTHUR ERICKSON: CRITICAL WORKS
Vancouver Art Gallery
Until September 10th, 2006

by Peter Clark
Culture Writer

If you’ve ever hung out with students from Simon Fraser University, you may have heard the rumour that it has the highest student suicide rate of any institution in Canada. The story usually goes that this is due to the drab, concrete, military bunker-style architecture. Many students will go on to tell you that the university with the second-highest suicide rate in Canada is the University of Lethbridge. “Do you know why that is?” they may say, “they were both designed by Arthur Erickson.”

Erickson is definitely not everyone’s favourite architect. His material of choice is normally concrete, which tends to lend his buildings a sterile, dull appearance. Initial experiences of his buildings regularly provoke comments such as “utilitarian,” “uninspiring,” and even “depressing.” So, why is he one of Canada’s best-known architects? Why was he chosen to design our country’s embassy in Washington? How did he get to be best friends with former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau?

“Arthur Erickson: Critical Works,” on now at the VAG until September 10th, describes and celebrates 12 of Erickson’s most important achievements over the past four decades and in doing so attempts to develop the gallery-goer’s appreciation for the talents of a man dubbed by some a “philosopher-architect.” The exhibit, divided into three sections, uses photographs, plan drawings, and models to illustrate towers, universities and an embassy he has designed for sites all across North America.

A superstar team of curators, composed of Nicholas Olsberg, former director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Ricardo L. Castro of McGill University, and the VAG’s own Grant Arnold, leads us through these works with a wealth of information. And that’s a good thing, considering the complex but interesting ideas that motivate Erickson’s architectural practice. Perhaps the most important of these is Erickson’s belief that any building should reflect upon its surrounding environment, be it urban or natural. Thus Robson Square’s multi-leveled layout contradicts its rigidly rectilinear city surroundings, and the terraces of West Van’s Bagley Wright House echo their ravine landscape in cascading concrete. Erickson’s interest in abstract cultural references surfaces in his buildings, such as the post-and-lintel allusions to First Nations architecture that feature so prominently in UBC’s own Museum of Anthropology.

But why the all the concrete? The curators describe, in their introduction to the exhibit, Erickson’s enthusiasm for architectural modernism’s embrace of visible structure, its use of materials which speak for themselves, and its lack of ornamentation. Adherence to these principles led Erickson to choose concrete, with its capacity to be moulded into a wide variety of architectural shapes and forms while functioning as structure itself. Olsberg and his colleagues do their best to explain these concepts to the uninitiated and the exhibit brings together clear examples of Erickson’s philosophy at work.

Most Vancouverites are already familiar with Erickson’s architecture, whether they like it or not. We’re surrounded by his work every day, be it UBC’s Koerner Library or the Macmillan-Bloedel Building (now Coast Capital Savings). Many of us have likely wondered why the two towers of the latter are offset in their alignment or why there are “stramps” (combined stair-ramps) at Robson Square. If you find yourself having thoughts like these, then you should consider visiting the second floor of the VAG before September 10. You may not walk out a fan of Erickson’s work, but you’re bound to develop some respect for his philosophy.

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