Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace... a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and, through cooperation, his ability to find greatness.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

I feel this is very important for us to have serene buildings because our civilization is chaotic as it is, you see; our whole machine age has brought about a chaos that has to be somehow counterbalanced, I think.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

But now I know that it is very important that all buildings should be consistent, that this is the quality of the Gothic cathedral, for instance, that we like.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

Let's talk about the Gas Company because this is my favorite job.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

The view outside was much more important than the exhibits.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

So what we have tried to do in our later buildings is to try to be completely consistent, as a painter is consistent or as a sculptor is consistent. Architecture also must be very consistent.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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.

Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki

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.