389 replies to this topic

[sebberry]

They couldn't agree on setbacks, could they? 

 

Hey, at least we're talking about it.  That's what art is all about, right?

[sdwright.vic]

I think iof 1800's style saw mills. Of course all stacked on top of each other.

[amor de cosmos]

i thought it was as much about vanity & money as anything else. according to this reporter anyway, local firms were discouraged from competing by themselves. so my first thought when I read that was what about arthur erickson if he were still alive? would be be acceptable? or the patkaus, hcm, mcm, bing thom....? so I figure it was never about coming up with the best project. especially since the VAG wanted to move out of its current location. then I read about frank gehry getting parachuted in to work on the LA river reclamation project, which commentators are saying was just as much about fundraising & his name (or brand) as anything else, even though there had been a plan approved by the city back in 2007 & just had to be implemented. so I figure the same thing is happening here by having a blatant bias towards a big name international 'starchitect' whose name the VAG could use to sell this project. & for some reason the city was only too happy to oblige them by providing a near-blank slate to work with, even though they've got an enormous task now to find something for the old VAG building so the robson square area won't be ruined. i would really love to know what the city intends to do with the old rattenbury building. even if the VAG is to move from robson square, the old post office building is likely to need a new tenant soon if it doesn't already, and I would say there is more than enough space there for the VAG's purposes, but the VAG doesn't seem to want to use a building that has been used by someone else. so that's what this new facility is about, fundraising & being able to say they were the ones who brought the world-reknowned birdsnest architects to canada, even at the expense of robson square, woohoo. everything that everyone says about what this new art gallery building will do to the block is already done by the current location, in spades, and they hardly even have to do anything:
 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DESIGN
 
Binswanger and Bartels talked extensively about the conceptual design.
 
Highlights included:
• On the courtyard level will be a full range of exhibition spaces that wrap around the lobby. Galleries at this level will be dedicated to showing works from the VAG’s permanent collection.
“It was very important for the gallery to have art at the beginning of your visit,” Binswanger said.
“The courtyard is where you start your journey.”
 
• The underground galleries will have windows of opaque glass designed to let natural light into the exhibition spaces. Above ground, several gallery spaces have floor-to-ceiling windows.
“We think of it as making holes where you can really peek in,” Binswanger said.
“It’s a mixture of pristine, clean exhibition galleries and moments when you relate to the outside.”
 
• The combination of intimate low-rise and taller highrise was important to the design, Bartels said.
“The one storey that surrounds the perimeter frames the site and makes for a very active street,” she said.
“That was fundamental to the design. It speaks to the history of the site. It has always been a space for people to gather.”
 
• The Vancouver Art Gallery has been in its current home since 1983. Because it’s a renovated courthouse, some groups don’t feel welcome in the building because of its history, Bartels said. To indigenous people, for example, the law courts can be painful reminders of the legacies of colonialism.
“Someone comes here and they see it’s a building about the past,” Bartels said.

“It speaks to a provincial courthouse which could be exclusionary to some groups.”
The new gallery, she said, is the exact opposite. “This is about being open to everyone.”

not buying that last bit. they were just hell-bent on recruiting a big name & finding a blank slate for them for them to work with, maybe in a misguided attempt to do for vancouver what gehry did for bilbao
 

• Successful contemporary museums such as the Vancouver Art Gallery attract thousands of people to openings and events because they’re open and accessible to the public, Binswanger said.
“The Vancouver Art Gallery really deserves a place that can deal with these numbers of people and different kinds of people,” Binswanger said.
“It’s not an elitist institution. We wanted to create architecture that accommodates that.”

http://www.theprovin...0311/story.html
 
i hadn't watched this clip in a long time, but a few times this week & I just get more depressed each time. it's pretty sad to see what the city is willing to sacrifice just to have that replacement building. what a joke:

http://vimeo.com/107081411
 
edit: fundraising idea: auction off the collection. after all, why bother with one when you've got a building? blame gehry & the bilbao effect for that too
 

The most vocal critic of the project has been Bob Rennie, a real estate marketer and contemporary art collector (one of the world’s top 200 collectors, according to Art News) who chairs the North American Acquisitions Committee for the Tate Modern and sits on the board of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rennie left the VAG board shortly after Bartels arrived and they are not on speaking terms. But he says his issue with the new VAG is not personal.
 
“As the entire discussion in the city turns to architecture, where is the conversation about the art?” he said this week.

http://www.24news.ca...xpansion-design

Edited by amor de cosmos, 02 October 2015 - 04:37 PM.

[amor de cosmos]

i don't usually pay attention to vancouver politics & I definitely haven't been following the whole VAG expansion thing very closely until the recent reveal. i'm a bit surprised that it turns out i'm maybe 90% on the same page as bigshot realtor rob rennie
 

“The problem in this city,” suggests Bob Rennie, “is that people put you on their boards because they want your money, not your energy or your ideas.” He doesn’t single out the decrepit, antiquated Vancouver Art Gallery, but his disdain for the VAG and its director, Kathleen Bartels, is no secret. The securing of a new site and construction of a new VAG seemed assured a couple of years ago, but the site acquisition fell through and major funding has been scarce. “I think they’re going about it the wrong way,” says Rennie. “‘We need the grand gesture: let’s hire a starchitect, let’s make a statement, let’s go for the splashiest exhibition.’ It grows out of a small-town mentality. We have people here who are royalty in the international art world: Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace, Roy Arden, Brian Jungen. Did you know that Rodney Graham has a major show in Basel this June? But oh no, we couldn’t possibly be good enough to stand on our own merits.”

http://thewalrus.ca/...-of-two-cities/

Rennie has made no bones about his belief the VAG is reaching too high and should stay where it is in the former provincial courthouse. He thinks the gallery should expand its footprint to include the courtyard fronting Georgia Street.

“Philanthropy is very stretched here in arts and culture,” he said. “I still am astounded that the conversation of art and purpose and how it fits into the overall cultural landscape is not taking place. The conversation is all about (the) architecture of this proposed gallery.”

http://www.vancouver...0455/story.html

who's right, I wonder? (from 2011)

For all those successes, her reign has not been free of vocal digs. Most famously, Bob Rennie, the condo marketer/art aficionado and former VAG board member, publicly commented that the expansion was “a monument” to her. Bartels says she doesn’t take it personally. “If I did I wouldn’t be here,” she says. “I respect Bob for what he has done as a collector, but it’s really not ego-driven or an icon to ourselves. It’s about what the gallery can be for this country.”


As for her own future, Bartels is hoping that her five-year contract is renewed this fall. “But,” she adds, diplomatically, “it is the prerogative of the board I serve.” If all goes according to plan, the director estimates the new VAG building will take six or seven years to complete. And while the opening “will be a huge climax,” it is not her focus. “The test of the mettle is looking at two years down the road, making sure it is sustainable.” 


And then, Goodbye? 


“Well,” she says, “new people bring in another level of energy, so it’s important to know when it is the right time to exit. 


“And,” she adds, laughing, “I want to have a wonderful exit.”

http://www.bcbusines...athleen-bartels
(at this point there's some chance it won't be so wonderful no matter what happens now)

someone correct me if I'm wrong, the way this is going to work is they don't raise enough money but start construction anyway, then soak one or another government for financing just to get it done? i don't think i'd put it past them. this bartels woman (or the board or spokesperson or whoever) has freely admitted to not working with the city in good faith. i hope they're not dumb enough to cut any more deals with her:

Vancouver Art Gallery never intended to meet city’s deadline (with video)
Organization has yet to raise the $150 million in government funding for its new home
By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun March 27, 2015

http://www.vancouver...0206/story.html
 

VAG’s broken promises anger city hall
Allen Garr / Vancouver Courier
April 23, 2015 02:58 PM

It is a train wreck waiting to happen, the Titanic heading for that iceberg. Pick your metaphor to describe the current state of plans to build a new Vancouver Art Gallery. With the deadline in the agreement with the city just a few days away, the probability of the VAG project succeeding is slim to none.

Two years ago, the gallery and its director, Kathleen Bartels, cut the deal with city council. The city would give the VAG a prime location, two of the three acres of the property known as Larwill Park adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Among other things, the VAG committed to raising $150 million dollars from federal and provincial funding. This was on top of the $50 million already committed by the province. (Actually, former Heritage Minister James Moore said almost immediately that there was no way the federal government would put up any money, let alone $100 million. The province has since said its $50 million is all there is.)

Last month in a story about the impending deadline by the Vancouver Sun’s Jeff Lee, Bartels said that the VAG never intended to meet that deadline. Her blunt declaration hit city hall with all the force of a sucker punch.

That’s chutzpah: squeeze everything you want out of a deal, then say that you never intended to keep your end of the bargain.

And then ask for more time.

It wasn’t that the VAG had simply fallen a bit short in its efforts to raise the $150 million; it hadn’t even raised a nickel. City hall politicos weren’t simply disappointed, they were pissed off.

When the deal was originally struck there was the intention, as Coun. Geoff Meggs told me this week, to extend the deadline. But that was with the expectation that the VAG would be well on its way to meeting the terms of the agreement.

http://www.vancourie...h.daZ2478K.dpuf
 
I saw this today too

http://www.vancitybu...russian-museum/

Edited by amor de cosmos, 03 October 2015 - 05:07 PM.

[amor de cosmos]

vancouver sun, october 1997

BILBAO, Spain -- Spain's new Guggenheim art museum offers a symbol of hope to a city weary from decades of industrial decline, soaring unemployment and violence.

King Juan Carlos inaugurated the fantastically shaped building under heavy security, just days after police foiled a plot by Basque separatist guerrillas to bomb the ceremony.

does that accurately describe this, either now or at any other time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI1N7oelEW0

I wonder because in the G&M in May 2001, around the time the current director was hired

But will the board manage to curb its penchant for meddling? Michael Audain, a local wise owl and long-time patron and board member who now chairs the VAG Foundation, says, "I don't think there has been a director of the VAG who has been received with so much goodwill." He adds, "There is enormous potential in this town to build something on a world scale. There's the lesson of Bilbao, which was just a sleepy industrial city. Culture could become as important for B.C. as the forests once were." Bartels, it seems, intends to put that notion to the test.

it makes me suspicious that, even before the current director came on the scene, the VAG never intended to stay at robson square. they bought into the hype over the bilbao thing lock stock & barrel & thought that a new VAG building would do for vancouver what expo, & later, what the olympics did. so I think no matter what they have ever said in the past, they never made a serious attempt to find something that would work at the robson square location because they just never wanted to. because the formula is to find a run-down or at least underdeveloped block, find a big name & reputation that can be crassly exploited for monetary gain & milk it for all it's worth. even release renderings that were originally supposed to come out in the spring during an election campaign when the party that shot down funding requests is up for re-election. but what does vancouver have to prove at this point anyway? i mean, one of my first memories of vancouver was going to expo, which is ancient history now. it's not a smallish post-industrial cultural backwater that bilbao was at the time, while vancouver is a cosmopolitan city of millions. in fairness though it looks like audain might have come to his senses since then, if his own gallery in whistler is anything to go by, no superficial spectacle, no hype campaign, etc.

Edited by amor de cosmos, 04 October 2015 - 11:38 AM.

[nagel]

Vic art gallery plans going to Vic council this thursday for development permits and rezoning:

 

https://victoria.civ...er 6 2015) .pdf

 

It's got some crazy bike parking too so I'm happy.  Although it looks like you could steal a bike by lifting it up over the bars?

[Mike K.]

Right on time.

 

Here are more details.

 

Approvals sought for Art Gallery of Greater Victoria expansion

http://victoria.citi...oria-expansion/

 

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria will be before City of Victoria council on December 10th to seek approvals for plans to redevelop its aging facility at 1040 Moss Street.

 

Designed by Vancouver-based Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture (LWPAC), the architectural vision for the new design features a multi-angled stainless steel exterior with a varying "frit pattern" throughout. Glass curtain walls with concrete accents will lend an open, airy feel to the gallery entrance, a major departure from the existing building. Other exterior materials will include metal and polycarbonate cladding that will create a multi-surfaced design tying in with the overall metallic theme. The floor plate of the new addition will total some 14,000 square feet and a ground floor glass-encased walkway will connect the historic Spencer Mansion. Parking for 26 vehicles, three scooters/motorcycles and 50 bicycles will be provided on-site. [Full article]

[Mike K.]

The expansion plan has been approved.

[amor de cosmos]

Director Jon Tupper said the art gallery hopes to obtain funding from the provincial and federal governments, along with local donations.

“It’s going to be a remarkable building,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to say: ‘This is a city that values art and sees itself participating in the world of ideas.’ ”

Tupper noted that the Victoria gallery has the largest collection of works held by any gallery in B.C., almost twice as many as the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Its holdings include Canada’s second-largest collection of Asian art, after the Royal Ontario Museum, with works from China, Japan, Korea and the Middle East.

Because its existing space is limited, he said, the gallery is lucky if it can show five per cent of its collection in any year. With the addition, that could rise to eight per cent, which Tupper said is a good turnaround.

“We have some serious treasures and we need to make sure we have the space to show them,” he said. “We really need to bring out some of these beautiful pieces.”

http://www.timescolo...ition-1.2131822

some commenters on the page say st ann's would have been a good location. better the art gallery there than government offices. my first choice is still the old powerhouse at rock bay. :/

Edited by amor de cosmos, 13 December 2015 - 09:07 AM.

[Bingo]

The expansion plan has been approved.

 

Parking is still inadequate.

[amor de cosmos]

imagine if the vanc art gallery moved to the old molson building on burrard! i bet there are some great spaces in there. or would it not be big enough or 'iconic' enough

Molson's Brewery, Vancouver by Rob, on Flickr

Watching Olympic Hockey at the Molson Brewery by John Biehler, on Flickr

[Mike K.]

That'd be amazing. I've always loved that compound they've got there, right in the middle of the city.

[Coreyburger]

imagine if the vanc art gallery moved to the old molson building on burrard! i bet there are some great spaces in there. or would it not be big enough or 'iconic' enough

 

One major challenge: the land is zoned for industrial use (and it is designated that in the Regional Context Statement too). Given that Vancouver and Metro Vancouver have little interest in losing industrial land...

[Bingo]

One major challenge: the land is zoned for industrial use (and it is designated that in the Regional Context Statement too). Given that Vancouver and Metro Vancouver have little interest in losing industrial land...

 

Right, Vancouver gave up all that industrial land in False Creek to hold EXPO 86 and it been downhill in that area ever since, with Granville Island and Yale Town being prime examples.

Edited by Bingo, 25 January 2016 - 07:23 AM.

[amor de cosmos]

One major challenge: the land is zoned for industrial use (and it is designated that in the Regional Context Statement too). Given that Vancouver and Metro Vancouver have little interest in losing industrial land...

well i guess that might be true, and what they do have isn't in big swathes which would be more useful for industrial uses. i was thinking more just the building.

[nagel]

The smell from the brewery actually fools you into thinking their beer could taste good.

[amor de cosmos]

A Victoria art collector and philanthropist has made the largest bequest in the history of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Rosita LeSueur Tovell, who died in Victoria in 2014, bequeathed $1.1 million to the gallery, it was announced Wednesday. The money will support gallery exhibitions and programming.

Tovell was married to the late Freeman Massey Tovell, who served as Canada’s ambassador to Peru and Bolivia in the early 1960s. In 1963, the diplomat mediated the peaceful release of hostages — including four Canadians — held by striking miners in Bolivia.

In the mid-1960s, the Tovells returned to Canada, where Freeman Tovell served as cultural affairs director for the Department of External Affairs.

http://www.timescolo...opist-1.2176714

Edited by amor de cosmos, 18 February 2016 - 11:26 AM.

[VicHockeyFan]

Philanthropist donates $2-million toward art gallery renovation project

 

http://www.iheartrad...oject-1.2226761

 

...The federal government has agreed to contribute $7-million dollars, but it's contingent on the province doing the same. Audain's contribution is also contingent on a provincial grant. Tupper says talks with the province are ongoing.

 

The art gallery hopes to begin construction in June, but Tupper admits the project would face a great delay if they can't get the province onboard.

 

[Nparker]

The province has committed to fund at least $50 million of the proposed new Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG)

...The idea of moving the VAG to Larwill Park won council approval in late April 2013. The catch, however, was that it had to secure a $100-million contribution from the federal government and a further $50 million from the provincial government by the end of April 2015. (The provincial government, under Gordon Campbell, had already committed $50 million to the project.)...

http://www.bcbusines...n-to-pay-for-it

Surely in these times of strong provincial revenues (or so we are frequently being told in the months leading up to the May 2017 election), there's a few million lying around for the AGGV project - or will the capital region be treated as the poor relation once again?

[aastra]

So is this the final/official version?