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Herzog & de Meuron revealed stacked boxes Vancouver Art Gallery Concept Design
Canada Architecture News - Oct 01, 2015 - 10:35 6937 views
view of the new Vancouver Art Gallery from Queen Elizabeth Plaza
all images © Herzog & de Meuron
Herzog & de Meuron revealed The Vancouver Art Gallery -conceptual design for a new museum building in downtown Vancouver. The 310,000-square-foot building is designed to serve the Gallery’s expanding collection and to support the work of artists from Vancouver, throughout British Columbia and across the world, to engage its growing audiences and enrich educational opportunities for lifelong learning, and to advance Vancouver’s reputation as an international centre for contemporary art.
The new building features over 85,000 square feet of exhibition space—more than doubling its current size—with 40,000 square feet of galleries dedicated to the museum’s vast collection. It also features a new education centre that includes a 350-seat auditorium, workshops and a resource centre for research, library services and artist archives.
view of gallery
A public presentation of the conceptual design by the Gallery’s leadership and the architects, featuring the Honourable Judith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, the Honourable Peter Fassbender, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, and His Worship Gregor Robertson, Mayor of Vancouver, held on Tuesday, September 29, at 6:30 pm at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Starting September 30, a presentation on the new museum will be on view free of charge at the Gallery, and details of the design will be available online at The Vancouver Art Gallery.The unveiling of the conceptual design marks the end of the first stage of the building design process, and is intended to describe the context for the Gallery building within the city, and the character and capacity of the new Gallery’s interior and exterior spaces.
view of gallery level 5 looking queen elizabeth plaza and downtown
Herzog &de Meuron's design for the Gallery’s 230-foot-high building comprises seven publicly accessible floors, plus two below-grade levels for storage and parking. There is also additional space for future expansion. It combines low and high elements to create an intimate human scale that activates the street level, while embracing a bold verticality and solid sculptural form that strongly affirm the presence of the Gallery within the cityscape. The lower levels are mostly transparent, making many of the Gallery’s activities visible, while the upper levels, which primarily house exhibition spaces, are more solid and opaque. The architects’ intent is to use wood for the building. The material is sustainable and evokes the architectural history of the region, including the two-storey wooden row houses that surrounded Larwill Park in the early twentieth century. British Columbia is at the forefront of constructing large wood buildings, making it an ideal place for a building of this material.
view of lobby from gallery
The Gallery will raise an estimated $350 million Canadian dollars from public and private sources, including a $50 million endowment to support the expanded cost of operation. In addition to private fundraising, it has received a $50 million gift from the Province of British Columbia and the generous donation of the Larwill Park site by the City of Vancouver. The unveiling of the conceptual design of the Gallery marks the launch of the public phase of the Capital Campaign.
"This is an exciting time for the Vancouver Art Gallery, as plans for the new building continue to progress," said Peter Fassbender, BC's Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. "We are all proud of the role the Vancouver Art Gallery plays in promoting and supporting art and artists in British Columbia today and appreciate the leadership responsibilities it has with respect to the future of the arts community in the province."
“A new, innovative, and expanded Vancouver Art Gallery represents a truly historic opportunity to support our booming creative city and to keep elevating how we showcase the world-renowned local artists who call Vancouver and BC their home,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “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.”
view from west georgia street at night
“The urbanistic concept is based on the contrast between the low-rise framing along the street block and the taller and more sculptural building in the middle of an open and accessible garden and square,” said Jacques Herzog. “The low-rise wooden building along the street is inspired by how the streets in Vancouver were built in earlier times. The modest, almost domestic scale will enhance the character of openness and visibility for everyone.”
The Gallery also plans to dedicate exhibition space on the ground floor to its Institute of Asian Art, which was launched in autumn 2014, to further develop exhibitions, public programs, the collection, and scholarship devoted to the visual arts of Asia, with a particular emphasis on contemporary art from China, India, Japan and Korea.
Along with dedicated education spaces including an auditorium for lectures, performances and events, the expanded museum also houses many new features including greatly expanded storage and art preparation areas; a conservation lab that will be a resource for the Province; and an expanded store, a café and restaurant.
“The project for the new Vancouver Art Gallery has a civic dimension that can contribute to the life and identity of the city, in which many artists of international reputation live and work. It will be a powerful statement to construct this large building out of wood, a material with a long tradition in British Columbia,” said Christine Binswanger, Partner in Charge for the Gallery project, at Herzog & de Meuron.
Visitors will enter the Gallery via the courtyard, which is framed by a continuous low-rise street front building and is accessible from all four sides. The cantilevered roofs of the low-rise structure and the main building offer ample covered outdoor space, while at the same time allowing sun to filter in during the spring and summer.
The Gallery’s free gallery, resource centre, café and store can be accessed from the courtyard and the street, while a sweeping ceremonial staircase between Cambie Street and the courtyard leads to the lobby below. A sunken garden brings nature and light into the lobby and surrounding exhibition spaces. Double-height galleries rise up to street level to provide daylight and allow passersby to see inside.
As visitors ascend from the lobby, they will be able to access the auditorium, the restaurant with its large covered terrace that overlooks the city, and the main concourses leading up to exhibition galleries. The museum building is capped by an expansive rooftop gallery and terrace. The environmental sustainability of the building is a high priority for the Gallery, which seeks LEED Gold certification and plans to employ other sustainability features that will be developed during the later design phases. The planned completion of the project is 2020.
> via herzogdemeuron.com