Minoru Yamasaki

We build buildings which are terribly restless. And buildings don't go anywhere. They shouldn't be restless.

The Wayne Education Building was the first classroom building that we have done on the Wayne campus.

The view outside was much more important than the exhibits.

In this tour around the world I was not interested in contemporary buildings because I had seen contemporary buildings actually until they came out of my ears in a sense.

In other words, I have no truck for anyone who goes out and does an eclectic building.

In other words, each piece of the building must look as though it was designed for that particular building.

If you look at the buildings, you'll find that one part looks as if it was designed by one man, and you go around and look at another facade and it looks as if it was designed by another man, you see.

If you have white walls, human beings look better in a room than if you have red walls.

I have been criticized rather strenuously by painters and sculptors for not incorporating their work in our buildings.

I can't do everything obviously although sometimes I know that all of us wish that we could.

But I don't see why we have to take a central hall, for instance, and use in it a sculpture or painting. I think it detracts, somehow.

Being the gateway to a large city, St. Louis, I had felt from the very beginning that somehow this building should symbolize this sense of being a gateway.

And sometimes I'm criticized. But I think that if those who criticize us will look at the reason why the shape is this, well then, I think that they would not object so strenuously.

And I like the idea of change. Because I don't see why we should hang a painting on the wall and then just not think of it anymore because it's there like a piece of furniture.

And exciting buildings are fine periodically.

And a building must be like a human being. It must have a wholeness about it, something that is very important.

If you examine this, I think that you will find that it's the mechanics of Japanese architecture that have been thought of as the direct influence upon our architecture.

I believe that we must understand the economy of the situation.

Because, if we understand how a building is to be produced and we find a way that it can be more simply produced, then obviously we are contributing to building better buildings more easily.

So I test all the buildings that I do by asking myself whether this building was possible, could have been built 50 years ago or a hundred years ago.

And I think that the environment is one very strong way to counterbalance the chaotic nature of our life.

And I feel that we in our society should not be held by any such myth that we should do everything we can to gain a delight and joy in our society with all the available parts of the palette.

I want to do very useful buildings and I would like to find a method of producing these buildings through our technology because I think that this is the only way that we will gain wonderful environment easily in the future.

However, India is a democracy and they deeply believe in democracy and we feel that it would not be good to overwhelm them with propaganda.

Japanese architecture is very much copied in this country and in Europe.