PHOTO ESSAY
Concrete Poet
The bold lines of architect Arthur Erickson
By Greg Buium
May 2006
 Photo by Ricardo L. Castro, 2005. Courtesy of the Vancouver Art Gallery. |
Museum of Anthropology (1972)
Vancouver
“Architectural people go to visit the Museum of Anthropology the first time they’re in Vancouver — always,” says Olsberg. “It’s one of those reference points; you go to see it like you’d go to see the Parthenon [in Athens].”
In April of 1993, then-prime minister Brian Mulroney used the facility as the backdrop for the historic Vancouver Summit, which brought together U.S. president Bill Clinton and Russian president Boris Yeltsin. In 1994, the locale acted as the office of Richard Gere’s fictitious (and quickly forgotten) architect in the film Intersection.
This commission on Vancouver’s westernmost tip, on the campus of the University of British Columbia overlooking the Strait of Georgia, captures a stunning confluence of cultures and eras: the contemporary simplicity of concrete; a post-and-beam structure suggesting a range of native traditions; and the Great Hall, which Olsberg refers to as “this incredible temple of light” filled with First Nations art and artifacts.
“I think it’s a building that surprised and alarmed [Erickson] when he saw it completed,” Olsberg says, alluding to the “divine presence” of the façade. “Some artists can be frightened occasionally by the power of their achievement.”
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