New Vancouver Art Gallery | Proposed

[metroXpress]

I think everyone here agrees that there is no point wrapping VAG like that. What are the plans for countdown zone?

[SpongeG]

i like it - its only for 2 months or something

they always do something to promote an exhibit

the video screen on robson looks awesome

[Vancity]

that wrapping is very ugly on the VAG. Too bad they couldn't do it the way the Bay did theirs. It could've looked a lot nicer, especially since the world is coming to town in a few weeks.

[SpongeG]

as seen yesterday

i like it - its not that bad

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

as seen yesterday

i like it - its not that bad

Dude, you're trippin. You're celebrating the 420 rally a little early.

[ozonemania]

I reserve judgement on the VAG art installation on the north side. It is bold, bright and festive, which contrasts the rather staid and cold feeling of the space in its absence, particularly in the winter. I will wait until installation is complete.

Also, visitors from the world over would probably yawn at our 'architectual gem' of the VAG. It is nice but certainly nothing ppl haven't seen just about anywhere. Not putting down the VAG, I do like the building. But as is (w/o the art), well enough people on this forum have complained about the city's lack of care in sprucing it up.

[SpongeG]

i like it i like the art, the building is always there - there is nothing exciting about the building anyway

it frames the art nicely

[SpongeG]

its an exhibit - olympics or not it would have been the way it is just timing

[Yume-sama]

Although, they have known it would be the Olympics for the better part of 10 years.

Surely they could have planned around and wrapped it was tacky wrapping paper, maybe this Summer.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Although, they have known it would be the Olympics for the better part of 10 years.

Surely they could have planned around and wrapped it was tacky wrapping paper, maybe this Summer.

its an art gallery - its art - its an installation not an advertisement

[raggedy13]

I don't mind the art. It hides a great building but it is still interesting to see since the VAG has never had something quite like that before.

At any rate I'm much more concerned by the sorry state of the lawn out front (or lack thereof). 90% of the grass is gone and all that's left behind is mud. It looks terrible. I don't understand why our main gathering space has so much grass in the first place. It needs to be a proper fully paved/stone square to deal with all the pedestrian traffic it sees.

[itinerant]

Originally Posted by raggedy13

I don't mind the art. It hides a great building but it is still interesting to see since the VAG has never had something quite like that before.

At any rate I'm much more concerned by the sorry state of the lawn out front (or lack thereof). 90% of the grass is gone and all that's left behind is mud. It looks terrible. I don't understand why our main gathering space has so much grass in the first place. It needs to be a proper fully paved/stone square to deal with all the pedestrian traffic it sees.

I think the users of the 'main gathering space' have changed, and the landlord (city, province, VAG?) has been lackadaisical about keeping the grass and tree plantings in good condition. They're poor maintainers.

People of forty years ago would also have been more respectful of the lawns than they are now. Diagonal paths are actually encouraged now by paving the most frequent shortcuts.

But its more than that... the space is densely programmed, and frequently temporary structures and events over the course of the year (mostly the summer) are let to build over the lawns without regard for restoration when its done. There are lots of examples, but the most recent trashing occurred with the Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah.

There are plenty of suggestions for reworking the plaza as a square, and probably the one we end up with should consider more hard surface, and greater respect and maintenance for the planted areas (grass, trees, etc).

Recent Vancouver Public Space competition for "Where's the Square" has People's Choice #1 winner which suggests a very interesting scheme to revitalize the space. Check it out at: http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/index.php?page=121


Image credit: Vancouver Public Space Network

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by itinerant

IRecent Vancouver Public Space competition for "Where's the Square" has People's Choice #1 winner which suggests a very interesting scheme to revitalize the space. Check it out at: http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/index.php?page=121

Looks like they just swapped the lawn from the east side to the left side and flattened everything else.
Apart from the fact that the front steps of the VAG dow not have an entrance (so it's a red carpet to nowhere), the problem is that absent any people, that proposal would look deader than the fountain that's currently there (think QE plaza with colour down the middle).
Even TO has tried to break up Nathan Phillips Square with various things.
And the City of Vancouver removed all coniferous street trees from Granville St. because they were inappropriate.

[SpongeG]

i walked through the other day and it was awful - pave it like a european square would be good

[paradigm4]

Vancouver Art Gallery chooses site for new home

The Vancouver Art Gallery wants to build its new home on the entire square block of the former bus depot site at Georgia and Cambie streets, and says it intends to make it the greenest art museum in North America.

The site between Cambie and Beatty was originally chosen by the VAG’s board of trustees in the fall of 2007 after a three-year search. But in May of 2008, the provincial government came calling with an offer to move the VAG to the False Creek waterfront on the site of the Plaza of Nations.

David Aisenstat, chairman of the VAG board of trustees, told The Vancouver Sun on Wednesday that the board has unanimously agreed that the best site for the new art gallery is downtown, across the street from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and near the CBC. With the addition of the VAG, the area has the potential to become a vibrant cultural district for the city.

Aisenstat said the VAG is negotiating with the city to obtain the entire block.

“We have commenced discussions with the city and had a fairly productive initial couple of meetings,” Aisenstat said from Toronto.

Aisenstat said in May 2008 that the board had agreed to the province’s request to first consider the False Creek site as a potential new home.

“We always emphasized that what we agreed to do was to take a look at that site. We did that and gave that site every possible consideration and found it to be unsuitable.”

Michael Audain, the chairman of the relocation committee of the VAG’s board of trustees, said the False Creek site had several major drawbacks.

“One of the problems there is that there’s a very high water table,” he said. “Normally, art museums put their art storage vaults underground. They’re considered the safest areas. We would have had to raise the vaults above the high tide level — not just the ordinary high tide but a super-high tide.”

Audain said any building on that site would also have to take into account the possibility of a tsunami coming up False Creek. The site is built on fill, so removing all the loose material for the building’s foundations would have added “tremendously to the expense of construction,” he said.

The False Creek site wasn’t as centrally located as the former bus depot, which is only a short walk from the gallery’s current home in the heart of the downtown on Georgia Street between Hornby and Howe. The old bus depot site has much better access to public transit, including SkyTrain.

Further complicating matters, Audain said, is the ownership of the two sites: the False Creek site is owned by a private developer – Canadian Metropolitan Properties – while the old bus depot site is owned by the City of Vancouver.

“The land [at False Creek] is owned by a private developer and we would be constrained somewhat by the rezoning and development schedule,” he said.

One of the country’s major arts philanthropists, Audain has donated, personally and through the Audain Foundation, $8.059 million to the VAG in the past several years.

Officially, the downtown site is known as 150 Dunsmuir. It was once called the Cambie Street Grounds or Larwill Park.

Kathleen Bartels, VAG director, said once negotiations with the city are successfully concluded, the gallery will begin the process of selecting an architect as well as developing a conceptual design and fundraising campaign.

She said it was still to early to put a price tag on a new gallery, which is intended to be 330,000 square feet in size, about double the size of the current VAG.

“We want to be a stand-alone facility on a highly visible location,” she said.

In an interview at the VAG, Audain added that “we’re thinking of the greenest art building in North America.

“If there are any doubters about why we should move, I think the tremendous exposure we had during the Olympics demonstrates the interest in visual arts in this town,” Audain said, referring to a VAG attendance of almost 100,000 during the 17 days of the Winter Olympics.

“Now is the time to build something magnificent for the community which will do the job for the next 50 years because I don’t think this building can.”

Aisenstat said the province’s contribution of $50 million to the new gallery, announced in 2008, is already in the VAG’s bank account.

“We’re talking about a real spectacular facility and a spectacular art museum,” he said.

“I really think that among governments, citizens, donors and corporations, if we aim for something great, we can actually achieve it.”

[paradigm4]

Olympic crowds reignite search for new art gallery home

The plan to move the Vancouver Art Gallery to a dramatic new location on False Creek near BC Place, announced with great fanfare two years ago by Premier Gordon Campbell, is dead.

The Globe and Mail has learned that gallery director Kathleen Bartels has gone back to negotiating with the city for an empty block on Georgia Street across from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

"After examining 12 different sites, very early on, this one rose to the top," Ms. Bartels said yesterday of the Larwill Park site, a parking lot - and former home of a bus depot - that was the location of LiveCity Downtown and the Canada Pavilion during the Olympics.

The gallery is squeezed for space, able to exhibit only about 3 per cent of its permanent collection at any one time, and has been hunting for a new location for years.

"Pure and simple, we need to expand," said Michael Audain, chair of the relocation committee. "The building is far too small."

The False Creek plan for the gallery involved a 320,000 square foot building - more than double the VAG's present size. At the time of the announcement, Ms. Bartels told The Globe: "You couldn't find a more exciting site for a new gallery, I don't think, anywhere in the world."

But a feasibility study found it would be expensive to build there and underground storage would be impossible.

"That really compromised any potential architectural glamour that the waterfront site may have offered us," said board chair David Aisenstat.

There were also concerns about the location. "It did move them further away from centre ice," said the city's planning director Brent Toderian.

In late January, the gallery informed the city that it was no longer interested.

Word of the move a few blocks east of its current location follows a wildly successful Olympic period for the gallery, with around-the-block line-ups and smashed attendance records. It was in the heart of the action, a stone's throw from the zip line, skating Olympic mascots and last Sunday, jubilant hockey fans. Olympics or not, this area is where the city congregates.

The gallery has been under intense pressure to stay where it is.

"Where they are now was just branded as the most active place in the city during the Games. And they want to move? They have the 100 per cent location now," said Bob Rennie, a condominium marketer internationally renowned for his contemporary art collection and private gallery in Chinatown. "They should just go underground. The Louvre did it."

Mr. Audain said that option would have forced as much as 90 per cent of the gallery underground.

"We're boxed in here, and it's time to move."

Although the province has committed $50-million to the new building, it could cost as much as $400-million.

The move is by no means a done deal. The city has identified Larwill Park as a potential spot for an office tower, and other groups are eyeing it.

"We've said to the VAG: if this is a site that's of interest to you, don't restrict yourself to a concept that precludes you from sharing the site potentially with a tall building or anything else even," said city manager Penny Ballem.

But the gallery, which has held some "very preliminary meetings" with "some of the most famous architects in the world," according to Mr. Aisenstat, wants a standalone, iconic building.

"We simply would not embark on a project of this magnitude with ordinary as our goal."

[Pinion]

So why did the provincial government want it in the plaza of nations? I always thought it was strange to announce that when the land was privately owned and the casino had a lease through 2012. And of course the water table as mentioned and the fact that art galleries don't want sunlight.

The area they want could definitely use more anchor locations (not sure if that is the right term for an art gallery).

[jsbertram]

Let us not forget that west of the QE Theatre is Canada Post which has been long-rumored to be wanting to get out of downtown. Potentially another block that could be cleared and developed for the Arts and Culture area around QE Theatre.

Done right, this could become an Arts and Culture Centre spread over 3 blocks with building massing not unlike Bentall Centre or Wall Centre.

BTW I also like the idea of having the VAG replace Sears at Pacific Centre, but I doubt the 70's era building could be easily converted to art gallery space. Certainly there's a lot of room, but the underground parking would have to be lost to make room for underground storage.

[delboy]

i just hope that the present gallery remains in the arts. A museum perhaps? It does make sense putting it on the georgia site, easy access to skytrain, close to the heart of the city and other venues for the arts.

[invisibleairwaves]

Originally Posted by delboy

i just hope that the present gallery remains in the arts. A museum perhaps? It does make sense putting it on the georgia site, easy access to skytrain, close to the heart of the city and other venues for the arts.

I've heard that the BC Supreme Court wants to take back the current Gallery building because they're out of room across the street.