Leon Krier Quotes

Cities are about juxtaposition. In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like. In Bordeaux, we built law courts right next door to what is effectively a listed historic building, and that makes it exciting.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

That's the beauty of Mumbai. While some parts have grown rapidly, there are places like Churchgate that have retained their character.

I look at [Toronto] and think well, perhaps my grandchildren will someday look at this stuff with the sort of appreciation I once held for Art Deco. Although I've come to find Art Deco quite creepy too.

Taken altogether, Washington as a city is most unsatisfactory, and falls more grievously short of the thing attempted than any other of the great undertakings of which I have seen anything in the United States.

One cannot completely avoid this landmark character with large buildings such as these. But the city itself is also gigantic.

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.

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

One great building does not make a great city.

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.

It's still possible to find pockets of old Dublin - but its becoming more and more rarified.

Elevated locations imply elevated purposes, even in American cities departing as radically as Los Angeles does from the traditional planning patterns of the Eastern Seaboard.

In Britain, we've tended to replace the kind of architectural culture valued in much of Europe with an in-flight magazine lifestyle - all branding, marketing and 'accessibility', a word that usually means dumbing-down.

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

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

Is there really anyone, besides Rudy Giuliani, who prefers the new Times Square?

Good and bad make up a city.

The city of magnificent intentions.

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

Like all things, cities must change - even a city as enamoured of the past and memory as D.C.