SANAA has released renderings and added a new opening date for their expansion of Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW).

Touted as the city’s largest cultural development since the dramatic opening of its Opera House nearly 50 years ago, the Sydney Modern Project entails the creation of two new buildings connected by a public garden and will make its public debut on December 3rd. 

The expansion will increase the institution’s gallery spaces by almost double from 96,875 to 172,222 square feet, including a new 23,680-square-foot underground gallery which was repurposed from a decommissioned World War II-era oil tank. Overall, 70% of the new gallery is being constructed above existing structures.

Per SANAA, sustainable design initiatives include over 16,000 square feet of photovoltaic cells covering the Entrance Pavilion that is supposed to generate approximately 10% of the new building’s energy requirements and a green roof designed to collect rainwater.

The studio describes it as a “light, transparent, and open to its surroundings” building that “responds to the site’s topography with a series of art pavilions that cascade down toward the harbor.” 

The AGNSW existing facilities were first designed by Walter Liberty Vernon at the turn of the 20th century to host the state’s now 36,000-piece official art collection, which includes over 2,000 pieces of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art that have been collected since 1974. A focal point of the project is thus to give this element of the collection a renewed focus throughout the campus, according to the institution.

The AU$344 million (US$244 million) project includes landscaping from GGN and McGregor Coxall. Commissions were awarded to artists Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Karla Dickens, Simryn Gill, Jonathan Jones, Yayoi Kusama, Lee Mingwei, Richard Lewer, Lisa Reihana, and Francis Upritchard to coincide with the opening as well. 

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, a local firm which specializes in adaptive reuse and historic renovations, will oversee a total renovation of the existing Vernon buildings, including a complete re-installation of the collection and the creation of “extensive outdoor art experiences, and a series of major art commissions across the campus by leading international and Australian artists.”