Richard Rogers Quotes

In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like.

I'm not one of these people who thinks everything in the past is great and everything modern is terrible. But I do think cities should be a mix of old things and new things.

In Paris, there has to be a presence. History becomes the most interesting when it's compared to the present. I mean there's a whole group of people that want to build new buildings that look like old buildings.

I found that through my life, living in the city of Toronto, I look above the Pizza Pizza sign, and I look above the other signs and window dressing, and I see evidence of a city that no longer exists in the keystones and the decorations that line the tops of buildings. That presence of the old city has always moved me.

I see my buildings as pieces of cities, and in my designs I try to make them into responsible and contributing citizens.

Without a shadow of doubt, Trafalgar Square has to be one of the most crap urban public spaces in the world.

I've never looked at a suburban building as being a minor building and an urban building as being a major building.

Asia is still dominated by skyscrapers. I hope that, in European cities, it will become a declining trend. They were almost never necessary.

Old San Francisco - the one so many nostalgics yearn for - had buildings that related well to each other.

Most cities are eclectic. There's a bit of medieval, Georgian, some Victorian and some 20th century. That's fine. Bath is different because it was built within 100 years or less. It has a homogeneity.

Certain parts are bad in every city, but Chicago is beautiful.

It's incredible that the layout of the centre of Chester, for instance, is still essentially that of the original Roman fort.

In fact, the public will accept any city plan and skyline provided that its architecture is traditional.

When people condemn me for designing iconic buildings in cities and not having an idea what a city is, they haven't done their homework. I started in urban design and city planning. It's just that when I got out of school there wasn't much of a market for that. There still isn't.

Cities are about juxtaposition.

I really love Miami, but I don't think the architecture matches the city. It's a bit too commercial.

In city planning, there is no limit to be fixed.

There is little in the architecture of a city that is more beautifully designed than a tree.

I feel most strongly about Jerusalem, because architects ultimately have to address that city.

You cannot separate the buildings out from the infrastructure of cites and the mobility of transit.

The design of a city is like a strange archeology.

In 1964, when we first arrived in New York City, I remember vividly seeing the skyline of Manhattan, and our first proposal of 1964 was to wrap two lower Manhattan buildings. We never got permission.

The skyscraper establishes the block, the block creates the street, the street offers itself to man.

When they show the destruction of society on color TV, I want to be able to look out over Los Angeles and make sure they get it right.

Paris enjoys a high reputation for the style of its public edifices, and, while there is a very great deal to condemn, compared with other capitals, I think it is entitled to a distinguished place in this particular.