Take a seat on a bench in Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, BC, and I swear you’ll feel almost Zen-like. You’re surrounded by traffic, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. You’re buffered by stands of pine, ornamental maples and thickets of rhododendron, lulled by the sound of waterfalls streaming unexpectedly over office roofs. This public complex, cast in a rose-hued concrete, covers three city blocks and connects to the Vancouver Art Gallery at the north end. In between are public offices and amenities, an open-air plaza, rooftop reflecting pool, a man-made mountain and the city’s only outdoor skating rink.   

Walk to the south end of the complex, over terraced levels of concrete, and you’ll see the provincial law courts, a soaring “space frame’’of steel and sloping glass. It’s more than one acre of glass, actually, meant to symbolize the transparency of “public-ness”—inviting the public to partake in the judicial process. The building is the quintessential example of the Modern Period in Canadian architectural design. And its master was the late, great Arthur Erickson, who passed away in May last year in his hometown of Vancouver at the age of 84.

Erickson’s unique design for Robson Square, the law courts and art gallery was conceived as a kind of tipped-over skyscraper. His biographer, Nicholas Olsberg, quotes him as saying: “This won’t be a corporate monument. Let’s turn it on its side and let people walk all over it.”

When you’re there, you really do get that sense of welcome Erickson intended. Plus, you appreciate how a truly talented architect can intrinsically connect public sites to nature and a sense of place.

Associate Professor Terri Meyer Boake, at the School of Architecture at University of Waterloo, ON, uses Erickson’s work extensively in her teachings. “Looking at the history of Canadian architecture over the past century, Arthur Erickson has to be recognized as the most nationally, as well as internationally, famous designer of the Modern Period,” Boake says.

Of course, the master himself puts it best.

“Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare,” Erickson said. “In every case, they are unique, poetic, products of the heart, of sensibility and with a freshness of view, which shows us the way and reminds us of our mission to inspire.”

Here’s where you can be inspired by the legendary architect’s works across Canada:

Simon Fraser University (SFU), Burnaby, BC
Erickson’s career truly took off when he and fellow architect Geoffrey Massey won a competition to design Simon Fraser University in 1963. A note from SFU’s archives explains how Erickson was motivated by the university’s mountaintop location to reject multi-storied buildings and elect a horizontal, contoured design in harmony with the landscape. “Erickson turned for inspiration to the Acropolis in Athens and the hill towns of Italy, where the mountain was incorporated into the design itself.”    

Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
Erickson designed Canada’s largest teaching museum in what is described as “traditional northern Northwest Coast post and beam structures.” Picture sky-high walls of glass overlooking mountains and sea. The dramatic Great Hall accommodates towering First Nations totems and you can see Bill Reid’s phenomenal sculpture, “The Raven and the First Men,” on display in the Rotunda.   

Waterfall Building, Vancouver, BC
If you are the kind of fan of architecture who would cab around Barcelona to see all Antoni Gaudí’s public and private works, you’ll want to take a side-trip to see the Waterfall Building. Its five buildings are connected by an open-air atrium with a glass “Gastrodome” at its centre. According to Boake, “Waterfall, with its curved exterior steel staircases and glazed art gallery, shows a more playful side of the architect.”

University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB
You can see echoes of the High Level Bridge in Lethbridge in Erickson’s design for University Hall—in its horizontal concrete lines, Boake says, which span across the forms of the coulees that line Oldman River. An excerpt from a 1969 Erickson/Massey design plan poetically describes how they took ideas for the university from the rural southern Alberta landscape. “The pattern of clouds, of plowed fields, or river coulees, each vividly conveys a meaning.... Just as the prairie landscape has been reduced to essentials, so must its buildings be elemental.”

RCMP Heritage Centre, Regina, SK
Opened in 2007, and constructed of the soaring stone, glass and concrete that are Erickson trademarks, the RCMP Heritage Centre is often described as breathtaking. Inside, vibrant exhibits, multimedia shows, tours and programming tell the colourful story of Canada’s famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, ON
Roy Thomson Hall is the stunning focal point of Toronto’s entertainment district. According to Boake, “The steel diamond grid skylight over the circular concert hall... makes attending either symphony or jazz an extraordinary experience.’’ 

Kingbridge Conference Centre and Institute, King City, ON
Sprawling over a 46-ha (114-ac) pastoral site next to the East Humber River, this impressive facility attracts high-level international conferences with its 18,581 sq m (200,000 sq ft) of conference space, 310-seat auditorium and 200-seat dining room.

The great architect himself once said, “You have to see a building to comprehend it. Photographs cannot convey the experience, nor film.”

For a complete list of Erickson’s works, visit www.arthurerickson.com.