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VANCOUVER — Arthur Erickson has been called Canada's most famous architect and the first to put Canadian architecture on the world map.
But he is no longer allowed to call himself an architect, according to his home province's regulatory body. Or at least not when it comes to buildings currently going up around Vancouver with his name attached to them.
The Architectural Institute of B.C. has sent him a warning letter saying he needs to clarify what he's doing because local marketing and news articles about several prominent buildings under way make it sound as though he is working as an architect.
"This is a very dear and honoured member of the profession whom we want to celebrate. But he's not entitled to provide architectural services without being registered. And he's not," said Jerome Marburg, the AIBC's director of legal affairs and licensing. "We can't make an exception for Arthur because he's Arthur."
Renowned Canadian architect, Arthur Erickson listens to a question during an interview in Vancouver, BC, November 20, 2007. (Lyle Stafford/For the Globe and Mail)
But that rule enforcement has flabbergasted Mr. Erickson, his family, his fans and the man who markets much of his work.
"It's outrageous," Mr. Erickson says. "I don't know what they're doing. It doesn't make sense. I'm not calling myself something I'm not."
Mr. Erickson hasn't been an AIBC member since 2005, when he resigned after refusing to comply with the institute's new requirement that all architects do 18 hours a year of continuing-education courses.
Mr. Erickson has designed the internationally admired Simon Fraser University, Robson Square law courts, and Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, along with homes, libraries, commercial buildings and more. He has been made an honorary member of the AIBC, but that doesn't give him the full rights of a registered member. That means he, or others, can't claim he's an architect or providing architectural services on any current projects.
The warning has prompted a flurry of tense communication in recent weeks between the AIBC and the members of Mr. Erickson's family acting for their 84-year-old uncle.
"To suggest that Arthur Erickson is deliberately misrepresenting himself as an architect is like suggesting that Einstein was not a physicist in his later years. Arthur Erickson has been an architect for 50 years and he cannot help it if people continue to call him one, regardless of the AIBC's opinion on the matter," says a statement they sent to The Globe and Mail.
However, Chris Erickson said he and his sister, Emily, who are directors of the Arthur Erickson Corporation, have also moved to eliminate any inferences that Mr. Erickson is working as an architect.
On the Arthur Erickson website, he's now called an "internationally celebrated designer."
Mr. Erickson says he believes what he does is still architectural work. For the past several years, he has worked in collaboration with his business partner Nick Milkovich.
He calls their work "a discussion between two architects and we agree on the result."
Chris Erickson said letters have been sent to the people marketing buildings his uncle has been associated with to ask them to change their wording. But Mr. Marburg said the situation is creating confusion for the public about what exactly they are getting when they buy into a building that has Arthur Erickson's name attached to it.
And, he said, the AIBC has done its best to clarify that without being antagonistic. "We've spent a great deal of time dealing with Arthur and those close to him to find an honourable way through this."
Special to The Globe and Mail
