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Vancouver, British Columbia
Arthur Erickson
The man who taught concrete to breathe — and gave Vancouver a skyline worth looking at.
By Gerald
March 2026 · Best Days Ever
Philip Johnson, who knew something about architecture, once said: "Arthur Erickson is by far the greatest architect in Canada, and he may be the greatest on this continent." Johnson was not given to understatement, but in this case he was not exaggerating. Arthur Erickson was, for the better part of four decades, the most important architect working in North America — and the fact that he spent most of his career in Vancouver, a city that was still figuring out what it wanted to be, is either a tragedy or a gift, depending on how you look at it.
Born in Vancouver on 14 June 1924, Erickson grew up in a city that was still largely wooden, still largely provisional, still not quite sure it was going to last. He was a painter before he was an architect — his early talent was for horticulture and the visual arts — and it was only after a transformative encounter with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright that he understood what he wanted to do with his life. He studied at UBC and then at McGill, where he graduated with honours in 1950. A travel scholarship took him to the Mediterranean, where he studied the relationship between climate, light, and built form. He came back to Vancouver with a philosophy.
That philosophy, stated simply, was this: a building should belong to its place. It should grow from the landscape, not be imposed upon it. It should use light and water and greenery as structural elements, not decorative afterthoughts. It should make the people inside it feel the presence of the natural world. In Vancouver, surrounded by mountains and ocean and old-growth forest, this was not an abstract proposition. It was a practical instruction.
The Mountain University
In 1963, Erickson and his partner Geoffrey Massey entered the design competition for a new university on Burnaby Mountain. They won. Simon Fraser University, completed in 1965, is one of the great buildings of the twentieth century — a continuous covered mall that runs along the spine of the mountain, with academic buildings cascading down the slopes on either side. It is simultaneously a Greek agora, a Japanese temple complex, and a piece of pure West Coast modernism.
The competition win launched Erickson onto the international stage. He was 38 years old. He had designed some notable houses in British Columbia, but nothing at this scale. The SFU commission was the moment that everything changed — not just for Erickson, but for Canadian architecture.
He received multiple Massey Medals for the project — Canada's highest architectural honour at the time — and the building has been celebrated ever since as one of the defining works of Canadian modernism. It is also, on a clear day, one of the most beautiful places in the Lower Mainland.
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby Mountain. Erickson/Massey Architects, 1965. Photo: arthurerickson.com.
Arthur Erickson is by far the greatest architect in Canada, and he may be the greatest on this continent.
— Philip Johnson, AIA Gold Medal ceremony, 1986
The Museum of Anthropology
The Museum of Anthropology at UBC, completed in 1976, is Erickson's most celebrated building. It sits on a promontory overlooking the Strait of Georgia, with the mountains of Vancouver Island visible on clear days across the water. The Great Hall — a soaring concrete and glass space that houses the Haida totem poles and monumental works — draws directly on the post-and-beam architecture of Coastal First Nations, translated into the language of modernist concrete. It is, as UBC has described it, "a total work of art."
The building is also a meditation on light. Erickson designed the Great Hall so that the light changes throughout the day, moving across the poles and the glass in ways that make the space feel alive. He worked with landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander on the grounds, which include a reconstruction of a Haida village and gardens that blur the boundary between the built and the natural. It is one of the finest buildings in North America.
Robson Square, completed between 1978 and 1983, is his other great Vancouver work — a three-block civic complex that includes the Provincial Law Courts, the Vancouver Art Gallery (in the old courthouse), and a public plaza with waterfalls, gardens, and an ice rink. It is the kind of civic space that most cities only dream about: generous, democratic, beautiful, and genuinely used.
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The Buildings
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC · 1965
The mountain university. A Greek agora on a BC peak. Won multiple Massey Medals.
Museum of Anthropology
UBC, Vancouver · 1976
His masterwork. Post-and-beam architecture in concrete and glass. Governor General's Award.
Robson Square
Vancouver, BC · 1978–1983
Three blocks of civic generosity — courts, gallery, plaza, waterfalls, ice rink. Governor General's Award.
Roy Thomson Hall
Toronto, ON · 1982
The concert hall that changed Toronto's relationship with music. Acoustic perfection under a glass dome.
Napp Research Centre
Cambridge, UK · 1983
His most important European work. A research campus that sits in the English landscape without disturbing it.
Canadian Chancery
Washington, DC · 1989
The AIA Gold Medal building. A statement of Canadian identity on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Recognition
AIA Gold Medal
1986
American Institute of Architects
Companion, Order of Canada
1981
Government of Canada
Royal Gold Medal
2009
Royal Institute of British Architects
Governor General's Award
1983
For Robson Square and MOA
Auguste Perret Award
1974 & 1975
International Union of Architects
RAIC Gold Medal
1984
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
The Legacy
Arthur Erickson died in Vancouver on 20 May 2009, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 84. He had spent sixty years making buildings that belonged to their places — buildings that used light and water and greenery as structural elements, that drew on the landscape rather than imposing upon it, that made the people inside them feel the presence of the natural world. He was, in the end, a man who understood that architecture is not about buildings. It is about experience.
His archives are held at McGill University, the University of Calgary, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The Arthur Erickson Foundation continues to promote education, research, and the preservation of his architectural heritage. His buildings — the ones that survive, the ones that have been threatened, the ones that have been lost — remain the most eloquent argument for what Canadian architecture can be when it is at its best.
The best days of Arthur Erickson's life were almost certainly the ones he spent on a building site, or in a studio, or standing in the Great Hall of the Museum of Anthropology watching the light move across the poles. He was a man who understood that some things are worth the effort. Vancouver was worth the effort.
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Sources
- Arthur Erickson Foundation — Biography. arthurerickson.com
- The Tyee — "A Bright Mind, a Mysterious Life: Arthur Erickson" (October 2024). thetyee.ca
- Encyclopædia Britannica — Arthur Erickson. britannica.com
- Wikipedia — Arthur Erickson. wikipedia.org
- Museum of Anthropology, UBC — Building description. moa.ubc.ca
- Philip Johnson, AIA Gold Medal address, 1986.