See a previous post for more information on this famous modernist house by Irish architect and designer Eileen Gray. There has been a lot of concern about the house’s survival, but as these recent photos by my Danish internet friend Vibeke Jakobsen show, it’s safely undergoing restoration. The house looks so much better – compare these to the photos in the previous post. The house is a major historical site and an important piece of architecture, but despite its fame in architectural circles, it’s a lot less publicly known than it should be. Is that because the architect was a woman? According to Patricia O’Reilly, who has written about the house, it’s undergoing “a €800,000 re-vamp with architect Gattier remaining close to Eileen Gray’s original concept, such as the black and white tiles; inbuilt furniture and footsteps cut out of stone staircase leading to roof terrace. But it has to be said that the focus of attention is on LeCorbusier’s murals and they seem to be the reason for this re-furbishment.” Le Corbusier was fascinated by the house, painted murals on it against Gray’s will, and died swimming just offshore from it – that’s why you see his memorial stone here, and there is a nearby promenade named after him. Thanks, Vibeke, for letting me post these photos here! The architecture nerds will be very happy.

Goodbye to Arthur Erickson, a native of Vancouver and one of its most famous inhabitants, let alone architects. He died in Vancouver today at age 84. Of all Erickson’s public buildings, the one I love most is the UBC Museum of Anthropology, above. Below is a collection of some of his best and most well-known buildings: the Filberg House, the Graham House (demolished 2007), the Bagley Wright House, the Helmut Eppich house and the Evergreen Building, which as a child I half-thought was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Erickson was urbane, acerbic, brilliant, impatient with bankers, and had a droll and often incisive sense of humour. Behind his own simple house in Point Grey he had a beautiful garden, almost Japanese in style and full of local native plants. I spent years as a graduate student at Simon Fraser University and I have to admit I hated that particular building. It’s not that Erickson could do no wrong, or that the Museum of Anthropology doesn’t leak sometimes, but I admired him as an architect and as a person. Erickson’s site is here. See also Vancouver Sun obituary and CBC article. Below, the steps of his famous Provincial Law Courts building in Vancouver.

Arthur Erickson quotes:
“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.”
“Builders eventually took advantage of the look of modernism to build cheaply and carelessly.”
“Compared to industry in Europe or Japan, where industry was based on a craft tradition, we are sadly behind.”
“Materialism has never been so ominous as now in North America, as management takes over.”
“In those countries with centuries of a craft tradition behind their building methods, techniques are tightly coordinated under the direction of the architect…. Nowhere has specialization penetrated so deeply into the building professions as North America.”
“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.”
“Our settlement of land is without regard to the best use of land.”
“Rationalism is the enemy of art, though necessary as a basis for architecture.”
“There is an increasing awareness of the interrelatedness of things. We are becoming less prone to accept an immediate solution without questioning its larger implications.”
“This great, though disastrous, culture can only change as we begin to stand off and see… the inveterate materialism which has become the model for cultures around the world.”
“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.”
“The Achilles Heel of the Americas was the lack of cultural confidence typical of new settlers.”
“We settled this continent without art. So it was easy for us to treat it as an imported luxury, not a necessity.”

Above, the Evergreen building in Vancouver, saved from demolition after a protracted fight. Vancouver Sun bio reprinted below. See also a nice tribute on Treehugger.

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