We settled this continent without art. So it was easy for us to treat it as an imported luxury, not a necessity.

The Achilles Heel of the Americas was the lack of cultural confidence typical of new settlers.

Does an architecture to assuage the spirit have a place in all this? Unfortunately we are no longer the interpreters of our culture's myths but the followers of that dubious client, the developer, who has little patience with the art of architecture, the fine detail and obscure promise, which can upset his financial activity.

The artist likes to seem totally responsible for his work. Often he begins to explain it, to make it appear as if it were a reasonable process.

Today's developer is a poor substitute for the committed entrepreneur of the last century for whom the work of architecture represented a chance to celebrate the worth of his enterprise.

Profit and bottom line, the contemporary mantra, eliminates the very source of architectural expression.

With production alone as the goal, industry in North America was dominated by the assembly line, standardization for mass consumption.