James Polshek Quotes

For many years, I have lived uncomfortably with the belief that most planning and architectural design suffers for lack of real and basic purpose. The ultimate purpose, it seems to me, must be the improvement of mankind.

Truly great architecture always transcends its stated function, sometimes in unanticipated ways.

I think the chance of finding beauty is higher if you don't work on it directly. Beauty in architecture is driven by practicality. This is what you learn from studying the old townscapes of the Swiss farmers.

I think architecture has to be a gift.

The way of architecture is the quiet voice that underlies it and has guided it from the beginning.

There is a profound ethic to architecture which is different from the other arts.

Designs of purely arbitrary nature cannot be expected to last long.

I hope you will understand that architecture has nothing to do with the inventions of forms. It is not a playground for children, young or old. Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit.

The ultimate goal of the architect...is to create a paradise. Every house, every product of architecture... should be a fruit of our endeavour to build an earthly paradise for people.

I feel however, that we architects have a special duty and mission... (to contribute) to the socio-cultural development of architecture and urban planning.

We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.

As an architect, you have to provide a shelter to enjoy art. And you have to love art. It's like when you make a concert hall. You must love music. This is the reason why you make the space, to enjoy music - making a space for art is the same thing.

Architecture has curled up in a ball and it's about itself. It has found itself either as a freakshow, where you're not sure if it's good or bad but at least it's interesting, or at the behest of forces of commerce.

I think architecture is rarely the product of a single ideology. It's more like it can be shaped by a really big idea. It can accommodate a lot of life forms.

I don't know any architects that I respect who don't have their own voice. I think the difference between architecture and the other arts is your immersion in reality.

When I started studying architecture, people would say, you know, 'Can you tell me why are all modern buildings so boring?' Because, like, people had this idea that in the good old days, architecture had, like, ornament and little towers and spires and gargoyles, and today, it just becomes very practical.

For me, architecture is not just creating a space to protect people but to make them dream as well.

Although we're architects, we believe we do culture; architecture is culture, and the topics we tackle will always arise a broader debate.

Architecture is one of the art forms best able to improve and revitalise cities both artistically and functionally.

Architecture is not based on concrete and steel, and the elements of the soil. It's based on wonder.

You can't just vote for yourself. All the time, you're thinking what sort of country, what world, what future?

I don't have a vested interest in a particular political career or a particular political office. My job is to do everything that I can to create an America and a world that we can live in and that we can survive in.

The difficult part was getting the people to change their habits so that they behaved more like first world citizens, not like third world citizens spitting and littering all over the place.

We must reflect on the kind of country that we want to build and the kind of society which we are choosing to pass on to our children.

My private work is touched by this destiny of understanding that architecture and engineering have a social character and can serve the community.