KPMB Architects with Omar Gandhi Architect, Jordan Bennett Studio, Elder Lorraine Whitman (NWAC), Public Work and Transsolar have won an international design competition to design the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia as part of a Waterfront Arts District in Halifax, Canada. 

The team saw off the top international offices in the shortlist of the competition, including Architecture49 with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Hargreaves Jones, DIALOG, Acre Architects, Brackish Design Studio and Shannon Webb-Campbell.

"Congratulations to the winning design team on their outstanding proposal for a new iconic Art Gallery of Nova Scotia," said Premier Stephen McNeil. 

"As a province, we recognize the importance of inclusive public spaces connected to the arts. Art and culture help tell the story of who we are as Nova Scotians. 

"The new gallery will reflect the importance of art and culture to our lives, our communities and our economy. I also want to thank the Sobey Family for their very generous donation to this project," added Premier Stephen McNeil. 

To celebrate the unveiling of the New Art Gallery of Nova Scotia design, the Donald R. Sobey Foundation, with The Sobey Foundation, announced a $10 million gift.

"As Nova Scotians, we are exceptionally proud to live in one of the most beautiful and culturally rich places in the world. The role that artists can play in shining a global spotlight on our province will be strengthened by this bold new vision for internationally recognized cultural infrastructure," said Donald R. Sobey. 

"The Sobey family looks forward to our province’s enhanced capacity to welcome the world with this visionary arts district. Our sincere gratitude goes out to all three design proponents and our heartfelt congratulations goes to Omar Gandhi, Jordan Bennett, Elder Lorraine Whitman, Public Work and Transsolar, and KPMB Architects Bruce Kuwabara and Shirley Blumberg for their extraordinary winning design."

The new gallery and arts district, located on the Salter Block of the Halifax Waterfront, will be a transformative destination for all to experience. It will inspire and celebrate creativity and imagination, but also challenge the status quo and reshape institutional values. It will be a place created with people, art, and culture at its core.

The winning design team’s submission outlines a new AGNS that offers an array of accessible experiences for all senses, and at all scales. It embodies a vision of a place for all seasons, rooted in sustainability, connecting the city at the water. It is a gathering space where art, learning and community unite.

The landscape design expands and contracts, flexing seasonally from the human-scaled, intimate gathering spaces at the heart of Salter Block to a large gathering space at the scale of K’jipuktuk, the Great Harbour.

The design features a striking peaked hat shape at the entrance, an iconic shape which is a symbol of the strength, wisdom, love and power that women hold within Mi’kmaw communities.

"We proposed a sinuous building surrounded by regenerative gardens that will signal a radical new beginning for the AGNS, the waterfront, Nova Scotians, and the world of art," said Bruce Kuwabara, Founding Partner, KPMB Architects. 

"We want people to experience art in a great setting. We want people to feel welcome and at home. We believe we have created a place for everyone."

"We are tremendously proud and inspired to collaborate with both the winning team and the public to reimagine how our gallery can serve communities, and to demonstrate the significance of culture and art, both at home and abroad. This transformational gift from the Sobey family will shape the path in realizing the dream for the new gallery," said Nancy Noble, Director and CEO, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

"Their generosity to the arts in Canada is unparalleled and we are so fortunate to have their support as we revolutionize the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia into a leading Canadian art museum. As we move forward with this talented team, we hope that all Nova Scotians will engage with us as we build a gallery for the people."

The gallery and the province will work with the team and the public to shape a final design that is a meaningful and accurate reflection of the diversity of Nova Scotian communities. Formal public engagement will begin in early 2021.

In April 2019, the Government of Canada announced an investment of $30 million in the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia project through the New Building Canada Fund-Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component, National and Regional Projects.

The Province of Nova Scotia has committed $70 million towards this project.

The public can view the winning conceptual design at the website.

All images courtesy of KPMB Architects with Omar Gandhi Architect, Jordan Bennett Studio, Elder Lorraine Whitman (NWAC), Public Work and Transsolar.

> via Art Gallery of Nova Scotia