Daily Inspiration Quote by Arthur Erickson

Modernism was supposed to be an ethic before it was an aesthetic: honesty of materials, clarity of structure, design disciplined by social purpose. Erickson’s jab lands because it flips that moral project into a consumer-facing costume. The “look of modernism” is doing the work here: the flat roofs, blank planes, ribbon windows, and stripped ornament that once signaled rigor become a visual shortcut for “contemporary,” easy to reproduce and easier to sell. When the style becomes a logo, the standards that produced it can be quietly discarded.

Erickson is also indicting a specific mid-to-late 20th century drift in North American building culture, where developers learned that minimalism can be a bargain. If you remove moldings and cornices, you can claim you’re being modern while actually just being stingy. A thin curtain wall can mimic the elegance of Mies without the precision, detailing, or longevity that made those buildings credible. The public sees “clean lines” and assumes quality; the builder sees fewer labor hours and cheaper assemblies. Everyone gets what they want in the short term, except the city that has to live with the results.

The subtext is professional frustration, but also a warning about how movements die: not through critique, but through imitation. Modernism’s greatest vulnerability was that its visual language could be mass-produced without its discipline. Erickson is calling out the bait-and-switch: a progressive facade masking careless construction, where “less” stops meaning “more thoughtful” and starts meaning “less, period.”