Just six weeks after cancelling a long-planned new building project designed by Herzog & de Meuron due to a 50% budget increase, the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) has initiated another architectural competition.
The gallery has invited 13 Canadian architecture firms to present proposals for the new building. Requests for proposals (RFPs) will be based on a ceiling limit in terms of budget and a designated scope, according to VAG director Anthony Kiendl.
“We’re designing to budget, not budgeting to design,” Kiendl said. “We’re working within our means.”
The new building will be significantly smaller than the 310,000 sq. ft project proposed by Herzog & de Meuron. However, plans are still in place to double the gallery’s current exhibition space to 80,000 sq. ft and create four purpose-built classrooms.
Other priorities carrying over from the initial project include incorporating Indigenous culture in the design and achieving a high standard of green building.
The target budget is C$1,200 ($832) per square foot for hard construction costs, which would likely result in a leaner, sparer design.
The Vancouver philanthropist and collector Michael Audain, whose foundation pledged C$100m ($69m) to the new VAG project, expressed his delight at the new design competition.
“I’m delighted that they’re proceeding with the new design competition,” Audain said. “We have over 40 million people in this country. I think we can find one who is suitable to design an art museum.”
The VAG moved to its present location, a 1913 courthouse renovated by Arthur Erickson, in 1983 and has outgrown its 165,000 sq. ft space.
Image Courtesy: theartnewspaper.com