The designs for an expansion to the Vancouver Art Gallery were announced today (Nov. 4) along with a transformational boost in funding for the project worth $100 million.
The donation was announced by Michael Audain, the CEO of Polygon Homes, art collector and supporter and philanthropist. The donation itself was made through the Audain Foundation at a media event held at the VAG. The gift is the largest single cash gift to an art gallery in Canadian history, according to the VAG.
In its planning stages for more than 13 years, the VAG plans to move to a new site on the southern two-thirds of the block bounded by Cambie, Dunsmuir, Beatty and West Georgia streets – a project that last year was estimated to be worth $355 million, when a $50 million endowment fund is included.
Whose money and how much
In exchange for being able to use the site, the city required that the VAG raise $100 million from the federal government and a second $50 million from the provincial government by spring 2015. No additional provincial or federal money has arrived for the project yet the deadline has been extended many times.
The Audain Foundation gift follows an earlier gift of $40 million by the Chan Family Foundation to establish the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts, and an initial investment of $50 million by the Province of British Columbia. The City of Vancouver’s pledge to designate a city-owned site is valued at over $100 million. In addition, $50 million has been pledged to date by individual donors and foundations.
Anthony Kiendl, CEO and Director at the VAG says he hopes to see shovels in the ground in 2022 with an open date in 2026. The estimated cost is $400 million with $160 million still needed to be raised.
The new location will include over 80,000 square feet of exhibition space, more than double the existing space on Hornby Street according to a VAG release.
The space will include visible art storage, a theatre, library and research centre, artist studios, accommodation for visiting artists, and a visual arts preschool and daycare, situated around a 40,000 square foot courtyard. The building will also house the Institute of Asian Art, a new Centre for Art and Communication, and a multi-purpose Indigenous Community House.
Building design
Renderings of the new building were unveiled for the first time at the event as well. Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron along with Vancouver architects Perkins & Will, in consultation with Coast Salish artists, some context for the design choices was provided.
“It is a very symmetrical upright building which gives it really like a civic scale on West Georgia Boulevard and holds its own next to the tall residential towers around it,” said Simon Demeuse, the principle architect from Herzog & de Meuron. “We always felt that such a confident building needed a skin, a material, a facade which made it approachable and gives it detail and human scale.”
That skin, which is currently still in development, is to represent and incorporate the weaving techniques of the Coast Salish people with wood and copper.
“It's actually horizontal copper bands that have different perforations that are actually weaving using some of the methods of the Indigenous artists,” Demeuse explained.
The project is expected to create an estimated 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs in the tourism sector, the VAG release states.
With reporting from Brendan Kergin and Business In Vancouver
