Vancouver Art Gallery reveals design for new building

If the intention behind unveiling the striking conceptual design for the new Vancouver Art Gallery was to get people talking, then the mission has been an unbridled success.

The project has a total floor area of 310,000 square feet, including 85,000 square feet of exhibition space – more than twice the existing space found at the old Robson Square courthouse building.

Binswanger said the design comes out of wanting to create something that’s lacking in Vancouver: covered outdoor spaces that are usable year-round. Ms. Binswanger said the architects would like to make as much of the gallery’s structure as possible out of wood, including new lumber technologies such as cross-laminated timber that have strong potential for innovation.

The design proposal, which was unveiled Tuesday, is both a sensitive response to Vancouver’s building culture and a dramatic argument for doing things differently. It speaks to the history of the site. Two levels of parking will be placed below ground. Pick your likeness. Like numerous cultural buildings designed by the Swiss-based architecture firm – not least the de Young museum in San Francisco – it would have a strong and haunting presence on the street. The architects’ intent is to use wood for the building. “We’re in that process”. British Columbia will now have a building that matches the ambition of the outstanding artists who live and work here. Indeed they pride themselves on making a close read of the place where they are building, and responding to it sensitively.

Gallery director Kathleen Bartels says she expects the new facility in the downtown core to open in 2021, despite repeated delays that have plagued the project since its kickoff more than a decade ago. “The new Vancouver Art Gallery will be an essential destination and our generation’s legacy for the future”, said Bruce Munro Wright, Chairman of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Board of Trustees.

The gallery’s board of trustees has already committed $23 million for the project.

The goal is to raise $350 million for the project with $150 million coming from the private sector, including a $50-million endowment to sustain the operations of the new gallery.

In April 2013, the city, which owns the VAG’s collection, gave the gallery another two years to show it had the necessary funds, including $150 million in federal and provincial commitments. Coun. Heather Deal said the new design should help put money in the VAG’s bank. “This inspiring design represents another crucial step forward in our work together to see a new Vancouver Art Gallery built that reflects the full diversity, vibrancy and creativity of this city, and makes a landmark contribution to the rich cultural character of downtown Vancouver”.

Arranged around a central countryard, the building will also house exhibition space and a café. The expansive 40,000-square-foot, open-air courtyard, which will be crisscrossed daily by museum-goers and neighbourhood pedestrians, will host art installations, performances, concerts, film screenings, and collaborative programs with other cultural organizations. The building would face Cambie, Georgia and Beatty streets with low pavilions; inside this perimeter, the bulk of the building would be lifted off the ground by 12-metre columns to create a 40,000-square-foot public courtyard, sheltered from the rain and open to the air.

The building offers a variety of galleries of different heights and proportions, natural light conditions and views.