Theodoric the Great Quotes

Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston.

The city of magnificent intentions.

When a certain spring, at some distance from the town is (excepting the rivers which are an hundred feet below the level of the town, with a very steep bank) the only resource for water --- a sufficient quantity of ground ought to be reserved round it and between it and the town, for conducting it into the town. There is also a stone quarry near it which ought not to be suffered to become private property. Both these ought to be vested in trustees for the use of the town. The most proper trustees would be an incorporation to be made of the town, to take place as soon as a sufficient number of inhabitants should be in it. Many will settle there next summer.

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.

Rome has not seen a modern building in more than half a century. It is a city frozen in time.

I changed the city of New York. I gave people back their morale.

In Los Angeles, by the time you're 35, you're older than most of the buildings.

It's not about doing over the living room of someone who has bad taste in color. This is about restoring historic buildings and instilling pride in a community, which can be done through designing new public spaces and social gathering spots.

What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.

I love Columbus Circle. I rebelled against the construction for a while because I go back to the '70s. There was no Time Warner building. Now I've started to really like it.

I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.

But there is so much more to do for the city we love... a Dallas with roads as strong as our businesses, parks as beautiful as our children, a downtown as tall as our imagination.

We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.

In the '60s when I was a student, there was this campaign to destroy 75 percent of the old buildings in Paris, replacing them with modern architecture. I realized this as a dangerous utopia. This modern vision did not understand the richness of the city. Thankfully, such destruction did not happen.

The lanes and streets of the city being set out, the choice of sites for the convenience and use of the state remains to be decided on; for sacred edifices, for the forum, and for other public buildings.

When you look at a city, it's like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it.

If you let people own their land, they take care of it. That's why privately owned land is always taken care of, and the parks look like cesspools. Nobody takes care of what everybody owns.

I am here before you tonight to dedicate this administration to bringing a new renaissance of neighborhood life and community spirit, a renewal of confidence in the future of our city and a revival of opportunity for all Chicago.

The Athenians had an oath for someone who was about to become a citizen. They had to swear that 'I shall leave the city not less but more beautiful than I found it.'

Cities may now bulldoze private citizens' homes, farms and small businesses to make way for shopping malls or other developments.

I bow to no one in my ambition to see Glasgow be as successful as it possibly can be.

The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins.

And then, build a bustling wonderful city of the 21st century, with a restoration of a spectacular skyline, which Manhattan, of course, needs. So, that is really the design as a whole.

Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world.

Melbourne is wonderfully altered since I last saw it. There are some very fair buildings in it now, and things are a little cheaper than they used to be.