The author David Stouck discusses his new biography, Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013), with Joseph Planta.

Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life by David Stouck (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Arthur Erickson

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

A new biography of Arthur Erickson has just been published, and I saw it on a bestseller list recently. It’s called, aptly enough, Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life. It’s a comprehensive look at the life of Erickson, one of Canada’s pre-eminent architects, who was renowned internationally as well. However it’s in Vancouver, where he was born and where he died, that he, as a reviewer of the book recently said, lives forever. His most notable designs include the Museum of Anthropology and the Koerner Library at the University of British Columbia, Robson Square and the Provincial Law Courts, as well as the new Portland Hotel, and the soon-to-rise Vancouver’s Turn, which will bear the Trump name. Simon Fraser University, which he designed with Geoff Massey in Burnaby, is one of Erickson’s best known works. Elsewhere there’s Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, the Canadian Chancery in Washington, and Two California Plaza in Los Angeles, among many other edifices. David Stouck is the author of this new book, and he joins me now to talk about it. I’ll ask him about how this book came about, and the hours of conversations he had with Erickson from 2005, until his death at the age of eighty-four in 2009. It’s a colourful and fascinating life. David Stouck is professor emeritus of English at Simon Fraser University, who’s written biographies of Ethel Wilson and Sinclair Ross. Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life is published by Douglas & McIntyre. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, David Stouck; Professor Stouck, good morning.

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