After years of stops and starts, triumphant announcements and long silences – there is finally momentum, once again.
Gallery officials are meeting regularly with the city, city hall is re-examining the term of the lease agreement, a public open house is scheduled for March, and shovels could be in the ground next year.
All it took was a single private donation – of $100-million.
— The Globe and Mail
The firm’s repeatedly revised design was originally set to be its first commission in the country for an expansion effort that has been mulled since first being announced in 2014. Vancouver Art Gallery has been balking at the effort since the early 2000s without naming a winner. Herzog & de Meuron's latest version includes a new woven copper facade and was developed with input from four Indigenous artist design consultants representing the native communities of Vancouver.
The gift from philanthropist home building magnate Michael Audain was announced on November 4th and came with quite a few of his own design “suggestions” that reportedly touched on the vertical orientation of the floor plan and the original martial of the now-remade facade. The museum is still looking for about $160 million (CAD) in funding to complete the $400 million capital project, but supporters are optimistic that Audain’s gift has steered the project back on track for a 2023 groundbreaking and realization sometime in 2028.
“Almost 100 per cent it changed everything,” VAG director Anthony Kiendl told the Globe and Mail. “I still believed it was possible before that. But I think this provides a certainty and the confidence to realize the scale of the vision.”
3 Comments
The Audain/Vancouver Art Gallery drama is surprisingly interesting. He's been a top donor for years and years, but kind of moved on from them for a few years and built two different galleries. Both are incredible buildings. One in Whistler, The Audain Museum, and one in North Vancouver, The Polygon Gallery. Check them out.
Two handsome Patkau projects.
Should "original martial" read "original material"?
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