The Vancouver Art Gallery proposes to build a distinctive new building on a site being used as a parking lot across from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on West Georgia.
Resting on stilt-like supports, the new gallery building would have three floors dedicated to a restaurant and auditorium sandwiched between exhibition space above and below. The design has been described as transparent, open and inviting.
The building’s instantly recognizable form comes from the way the different levels are stacked on top of one another to create covered spaces that are protected from the rain yet still open to sun and light.
The VAG’s much-anticipated conceptual design by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Mueron was released today at the current gallery’s home at 750 Hornby St.
The new gallery would cover two-thirds of the entire city-owned block. The remainder of the site along Dunsmuir is intended for future development. The new gallery could be built as early as 2021.
On Monday, reporters got a preview of the building with the lead architect Christine Binswanger and Kathleen Bartels, the gallery’s director.
Unlike many art galleries, the new VAG rises vertically on the site rather than covering it horizontally. Resembling boxes on top of one another, the proposed design looks both contemporary and totemic.
Binswanger said the design comes out of wanting to create something that’s lacking in Vancouver: covered outdoor spaces that are usable year-round.
“But also we wanted to go into the vertical because this a city that is all about verticality,” she said in an interview.
“You want to give the experience of being high up to the general public that visits this gallery.”
The transparency comes from the glass cladding on the exterior of the auditorium and restaurant in the middle section. The design anticipates that when people are in the foyer and on the covered patio, they will animate those spaces and be visible to people outside.
The building’s colour comes from wood cladding on the upper levels.
The proposed gallery would have 86,000 square feet of exhibition space — about double the amount available at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Of that, a little less than half will be dedicated to showing the permanent collection of more than 10,000 works. Some of those spaces will be free to the public.
Bartels said the design was meant to be approachable and accessible.
“We want it to be that gathering space that people come for not only events but also just to hang out.”
