IJCS/RIÉCFigure 2.Arthur Erickson, Canadian Chancery, Wash<strong>in</strong>gton, D. C., 1983-88 (author).<strong>and</strong> natural fabric of the cedar-faced triangu<strong>la</strong>r pediment, barrel vault <strong>and</strong> 12-sided pil<strong>la</strong>rs that characterize the Pug<strong>et</strong> Sound House (Wash<strong>in</strong>gton, 1983),constructed a decade <strong>la</strong>ter. However, they share senses of p<strong>la</strong>ce that emanate<strong>from</strong> their respective re<strong>la</strong>tionships with the l<strong>and</strong>. The stark, concr<strong>et</strong>e,channelled beams of the University of British Columbia AnthropologyMuseum (Vancouver, B. C., 1972) <strong>and</strong> the prist<strong>in</strong>e Doric rotunda of theCanadian Chancery evidence diam<strong>et</strong>rically different vocabu<strong>la</strong>ries of design,although both derive <strong>from</strong> p<strong>la</strong>ce-bound histories. Such breadth <strong>and</strong> diversitydefy reductionist categorization <strong>in</strong> terms of either modern or postmodernarchitectural style.This essay will not assess the re<strong>la</strong>tive merits of Erickson's earlier <strong>and</strong> morerecent build<strong>in</strong>gs. Rather, it will draw <strong>from</strong> the postmodern discourse aframework for consider<strong>in</strong>g the evolution of the architect's work <strong>in</strong> terms of abroadly constructed <strong>la</strong>nguage <strong>in</strong>formed by natural, human made <strong>and</strong> culturalcontexts, <strong>and</strong> vested <strong>in</strong> direct experience of p<strong>la</strong>ce. By posit<strong>in</strong>g formal <strong>and</strong>theor<strong>et</strong>ical confluences <strong>and</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>uities b<strong>et</strong>ween modern <strong>and</strong> postmodernarchitecture, it will seek transcendent pr<strong>in</strong>ciples of design that overarch thes<strong>in</strong>gu<strong>la</strong>r authority of each of these two movements that have dom<strong>in</strong>ated thecultural discourse of the second half of the 20th century.28
The Architecture of Arthur Erickson: Redeem<strong>in</strong>g ModernityP<strong>la</strong>c<strong>in</strong>g Erickson <strong>in</strong> the Project of ModernityFor all <strong>in</strong>tents <strong>and</strong> purposes, Erickson is an <strong>in</strong>heritor of the project ofmodernity, an enterprise dat<strong>in</strong>g to the 18th century. His professional tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g atMcGill University was cast <strong>in</strong> the then <strong>in</strong>fluential mode of the Bauhaus. Whenhe entered architectural practice <strong>in</strong> Vancouver <strong>in</strong> 1953, a mature modernism,the International Style, was emerg<strong>in</strong>g forcefully <strong>in</strong> North America. Of course,modernism is a self-conscious term, atta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g mean<strong>in</strong>g <strong>from</strong> how an era viewsitself <strong>in</strong> re<strong>la</strong>tion to its past. 4 Complicat<strong>in</strong>g the issue, modernism <strong>in</strong> architecture<strong>and</strong> the “Modern Movement” are readily conf<strong>la</strong>ted.Rooted <strong>in</strong> the Enlightenment, modernism postu<strong>la</strong>ted universal pr<strong>in</strong>ciples ofart, science <strong>and</strong> morality based upon the autonomous <strong>la</strong>ws of their <strong>in</strong>ner logic.As a <strong>la</strong>rger enterprise, it has been manifested diversely <strong>in</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>ually evolv<strong>in</strong>garchitectural expressions <strong>from</strong> Romantic C<strong>la</strong>ssicism to the high VictorianGothic, evident <strong>in</strong> <strong>Canada</strong> <strong>from</strong> British colonial c<strong>la</strong>ssicism to the VictorianDom<strong>in</strong>ion Parliament Build<strong>in</strong>gs. Dur<strong>in</strong>g the first decades of the 20th century,the project of modernity reached new extremes by exalt<strong>in</strong>g the present <strong>and</strong>revolt<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>st the normative functions of history. This spirit was embodied<strong>in</strong> parallel, y<strong>et</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ct, architectural expressions—the DeStijl, Futurist, <strong>and</strong>Bauhaus styles <strong>in</strong> Europe, <strong>and</strong> the manner of Frank Lloyd Wright <strong>in</strong> NorthAmerica—which tog<strong>et</strong>her constitute the so-called Modern Movement,culm<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the International Style.In their <strong>in</strong>dictments of 20th-century modernism's utopian presumptions,<strong>in</strong>difference to context, <strong>and</strong> f<strong>et</strong>ishiz<strong>in</strong>g of production, proponents ofpostmodernism have been notorious for present<strong>in</strong>g a monolithic picture of amodern architecture that was not merely hegemonic—the normative productof a dom<strong>in</strong>ant track of aesth<strong>et</strong>ic <strong>and</strong> cultural theories, but absolutelyhomogenous. 5 Such a mythic modernism never existed, particu<strong>la</strong>rly not <strong>in</strong>North America where, as Huyssen (1986, p. 185) po<strong>in</strong>ted out, the <strong>in</strong>itialutopian visions of modernism were never <strong>in</strong> favor <strong>and</strong> the promotion of theInternational Style was the result of corporate <strong>and</strong> governmententrepreneurship. This is especially true of <strong>Canada</strong>, where modernism, whichatta<strong>in</strong>ed its apex <strong>in</strong> the architecture of the 1960s, was <strong>la</strong>te to triumph. The<strong>in</strong>herent brutality <strong>and</strong> p<strong>la</strong>celessness of modernism's mach<strong>in</strong>e aesth<strong>et</strong>ic isapparent <strong>in</strong> such prom<strong>in</strong>ent works of Canadian architecture as the P<strong>la</strong>ceBonaventure by Afflect, Desbarats, Dimakpoulos, Lebensold, Sise (Montreal,1967), <strong>and</strong> through the sem<strong>in</strong>al works of John Park<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> association with Miesvan der Rohe for the Toronto Dom<strong>in</strong>ion Bank (Toronto, 1964-72) <strong>and</strong> withViljo Revell for the Toronto City Hall (1965). The development of such awider framework is critical for position<strong>in</strong>g Erickson <strong>in</strong> the project ofmodernity, <strong>and</strong> the discourse that progressively challenged its authority.While Erickson appreciated the modern ideals of structural honesty <strong>and</strong> formalefficiency, an <strong>in</strong>tuitive response to environmental context is evident <strong>in</strong> hisbuild<strong>in</strong>gs as early as the first Smith House (West Vancouver, B. C., 1953) <strong>and</strong>29