On his firing from SMTI / UMass Dartmouth in 1966

"Yes, I was fired. But in a sense, my influence and efforts did not change that drastically -- not at first anyway -- because the other architects -- and I have to emphasize that there were many architects involved -- understood that there was a pervading idea, series of ideas, welding the campus into one, and that it needed to be an ongoing effort, so the other architects actually came to my rescue, otherwise it would not have worked.

The then Governor of Massachusetts [John Volpe] felt very strongly that I should resign, so I had no alternative but to do so. This was essentially over questions of cost, but his staff, as I understand it, reported that our buildings were little, if any, more expensive than others the state of Massachusetts was erecting. But the good governor, as I understand it, retorted that it didn't matter really what they cost, they looked expensive, which I thought was a very nice compliment. In any event, too much was at stake, from my viewpoint anyway, and too much had already been planned or designed or considered. It is one thing to put on paper initial ideas, and it is another thing to see that those ideas are developed properly through the labyrinth of integrating the work of many different kinds of engineering, disciplines, modifications of program, considerations of costs, learning from earlier work on a large project -- both negative and positive --and correcting or modifying that experience."

Interview with Lasse Antonsen, 1996