A new home for the AGNS?

[CorbeauNoir]

I don't have much information concerning this, but apparently there's been some preliminary talk of perhaps moving the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and it dosen't appear there's been any mention of it here yet.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...-new-home.html

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is calling for a feasibility study into building a new home for the provincial museum.

The AGNS found its downtown Halifax building to be "seriously inadequate" in a 2008 report that recommended constructing a new, larger building elsewhere in the downtown area.

The report's other suggested options were a creating new building outside the core or renovating the current space on Hollis Street.

On Friday, AGNS issued a request for tender for a new building.

Surprise surprise, people have quickly jumped to the comments and declare they hate the idea, despite the fact that the current building is quite literally falling apart around them and honestly could really do with some expansion of gallery space and a less quirky layout. After the weeklong architecture nerdgasm I just had in Vancouver it's going to be frustrating as hell returning to the typical old defeatist complaining of Halifax. You guys must be saints to be able to put up with it so well for so long, it's already starting to get me a bit stir-crazy...

[fenwick16]

It is a good idea to start a new thread on this topic (although it has been discussed in the "general updates" section).

I don't want it to sound like I am being negative towards a new AGNS (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia), but I like the old building. I was first there about 20 years ago shortly after it had moved to the current location and I was very impressed by the building (I mainly went in to see the building). I think the AGNS will lose some of its ambiance if it moves to a modern building and it would be a waste of money, in my opinion. The building is part of the attraction, especially for people like myself who aren't very interested in art.

I understand the need for air conditioning to protect the art pieces, but can't the old building be renovated to add air conditioning? I also like the look of the Art Gallery South in this adjacent building Street View link (couldn't this be expanded to include more floors?).

If you check the public opinions for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, they sound to be quite positive - here.

I would be very worried about the old building being vacated since there are not really that many uses for old buildings, and an Art Gallery seems like a perfect fit. I am impressed by modern new buildings, but not for the AGNS (I am also impressed by old, historic buildings). In this case, new isn't better, in my opinion.

[CorbeauNoir]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

It is a good idea to start a new thread on this topic (although it has been discussed in the "general updates" section).

I don't want it to sound like I am being negative towards a new AGNS (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia), but I like the old building. I was first there about 20 years ago shortly after it had moved to the current location and I was very impressed by the building (I mainly went in to see the building). I think the AGNS will lose some of its ambiance if it moves to a modern building and it would be a waste of money, in my opinion. The building is part of the attraction, especially for people like myself who aren't very interested in art.

I understand the need for air conditioning to protect the art pieces, but can't the old building be renovated to add air conditioning? I also like the look of the Art Gallery South in this adjacent building Street View link (couldn't this be expanded to include more floors?).

If you check the public opinions for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, they sound to be quite positive - here.

I would be very worried about the old building being vacated since there are not really that many uses for old buildings, and an Art Gallery seems like a perfect fit. I am impressed by modern new buildings, but not for the AGNS (I am also impressed by old, historic buildings). In this case, new isn't better, in my opinion.

That's definitely fair. Personally I just find a lot of the exhibition spaces in the current gallery are prohibitively small and are arranged a bit awkwardly. Which isn't inherently a bad thing depending on what's being displayed, but it can really limit what's shown here, particularly for traveling exhibitions. But that's likely a byproduct of me having lived in much larger cities than Halifax.

[halifaxboyns]

My only problem with the suggestion (from the general thread) of using the vacant parking lot across from the art gallery is that it's not vacant. I think that parcel is actually part of the old post office building parcel (I'll check HRM's website) and so its used as parking for some of the senior government staff from PWGSC and it's access to their loading docks.

Plus I don't think PWGSC has any plans to move from the building - from what I'm hearing they are crammed in there as is.