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Vancouver Art Gallery should stay put, says arts and urban-planner group

March 5th, 2010 · 11 Comments

The question of what to do about the Vancouver Art Gallery is stirring up debate in circles all over the city. People who care about art, about architecture, about urban planning and about money and fundraising all have strong opinions on whether the gallery has outgrown the current site and absolutely has to move in order to be successful. Or not.

Here is one group’s opinions, although I know there are equally strong opinions out there on the other side (or sides).

Categories: Uncategorized

  • http://members.shaw.ca/urbanismo/Cooperage.pdf Urbanismo

    VAG . . .

    As a former board member I say . . . leave it where it is.

    I remember the polite tussle we had to keep Arthur’s entrance off Robson, to the south . . .

    We made the right decision . . .

  • http://philipwalmsley.wordpress.com Phil

    I say buy Sears across the street (they could use the money) and turn that into the contemporary/major show gallery. Keep the current site to house 18/19/20th C Canadian work. Hire a starchitect to build an awesome foot bridge to connect the two. Wapow! Minimal urban impact, and we get rid of Sears! Everyone wins!

  • http://- evilfred

    No offense intended, but why do reporters always turn to developers like Bing Thom and Bob Rennie when asking about planning? They obviously have a vested interest in building more towers and making more money. I don’t see how they have any special knowledge in planning.

  • Joe Just Joe

    You do know that Sears doesn’t own the building right? It’s owned by Cadillac Fairview and they would like nothing better then to get rid of Sears. The problem is Sears has a sweetheart lease on the property from when it acquired Eatons, there is a generation worth of years left in that lease and way below market rates. That Sears is not going to go anywhere unless the whole company goes under.
    When the time comes that Sears does vacant, there are already plans drawn up for what will go into that space and they do not include a public square nor an art museum. :)

  • http://members.shaw.ca/urbanismo/Cooperage.pdf Urbanismo

    Frances, read your G&M VAG stuff last night.
    What on earth is all this piffle about needing more space?

    El premier and his acolyte KB (she’s been put up to this by someone) wanting to spend C$350 g’s just blows my mind: now is not the time for another multi-million dollar boondoggle.

    VAG needs an up-dated, that’s all: and I’m talking leadership, not hardware!

    For instance, one tiny detail that does not require ripping anything apart, and if it wants to be . . . errrrr . . . in the international swim . . . follow the lead of most “world class” galleries and paint its wall in primary colours: instead of the omnipotent, always insipid, off-white.

    The gallery does not need more space. It needs to appreciate the space it has. Building over, under or on the plaza is quite unnecessary at this time.

    There are many ways to make the plaza useful: an atrium addition for instance, to accommodate workshops etc., but that is way down the line.

    And keep Robert Savary’s fountain abomination: it has become an abominable, affectionate affectation . . .

    Oh, and as an aside, lest we get too hypnotized by all this fee-simple urban row house nonsense the atrium as urban housing deserves further exploration.

    (The front stoop and living room window on the street is voyeurism not urbanism!)

    As for a Gehry type statement, well that just type castes us as another bunch of wanna-bees who don’t have the talent to do it to ourselves.

    Frank Gehry is a psychopath: ditto Daniel Libeskind. They, with many of their ilk, have an unquenchable need to show off their organs in public.

    I haven’t visited the recent Toronto stuff but their pretensions, aided and abetted by the respective directors, claim the recent impositions on Dundas to be “neighbourhood responsive”. And that is just . . . well . . . now there’s an abuse of the language!

    Move VAG! Just say no . . .

  • http://members.shaw.ca/urbanismo/Cooperage.pdf Urbanismo

    PS The Gehry obsession: titanium plates!

    Those back-drop, buckled, titanium plates to The Grange, simulating sky, as Gehry claims, are just damn right ludicrous . . .

    Why architects persist in obsession beats me? Fee-simple row houses are another.

    Keep architects away from the art gallery for God’s sake . . .

  • http://www.everyoneforever.org/ Richard

    Wow. Get a large site. Hire a starchitect. Spend $400 million to build what is essentially a big box art gallery that probably would not be a box. This is just about the least creative idea I have ever seen. Might as well throw in an extra billion and call it the Dubai Art Gallery.

    It would be great to have a spectacular building in Vancouver but what would be the point in building it at the Georgia Street site. With all the tall buildings around, hardly anyone would notice it. Now, combining it with a hotel or office building on the site would be a better idea. Then the building would actually add something to our boring skyline. In a tall building, there could be a gallery in the sky so to speak. In an office building or a hotel, some of the art could also be displayed on the hallways and in the rooms of the building instead of storing it in the basement.

    Or how about combining the art gallery with the new city hall at Cambie and Broadway. Make the UBC Line station part of the gallery or even the other stations on the line. Make the stations special like the ones in Naples, Athens or Moscow.

    Or spend the $400 million on public art throughout the city.

    I’m sure there are dozens of other good ideas that are more interesting and or less costly than the big non box on Georgia.

  • Bill Lee

    Posted on http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx/Story.asp
    x?ID=1204434
    ——
    Campbell OK with VAG move
    VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
    Jordan Armstrong | Email news tips to 3/8/2010

    Premier Gordon Campbell is weighing-in on the Vancouver Art Gallery’s proposed move out of it’s present location.
    Some are suggesting the move will kill the excitement of the Robson Square area.
    Campbell says there’s no reason that has to be the case, “But it’s like so many other things. I think we have to be willing to look at the opportunities and pursue them together. The Art Gallery, I think…we want it to be an xceptional cultural institution in the City. We think it can be. We want to be major partners for them as they strive to put together a new art gallery that meets their curatorial needs right now.”
    The Gallery’s Board of Directors has chosen the old bus depot site at Georgia and Beatty for it’s new home.””
    ——
    So what does he know? (and when did he know it? …as ex-mayor of Vancouver? Or before that?

  • MB

    I’ve never seen Gordo as a culture guy. But there’s always a first time.

  • MB

    Regarding the “tall buildings” around the Larwill site, the low rise QE Theatre is right across the street, on the long side of the block too. It could act as a couplet with a new art gallery structure, as could another public plaza.

    My first job upon moving to Vancouver in the 70s was as a part-time broom pusher at the QE. I have very fond memories of taking my lunch high up in the lighting gantrys and watching the Royal London Ballet rehearse Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with the VSO.

  • stuart

    In my opinion the VAG should not be a collecting gallery, but an exhibition gallery, bringing in shows from around the world. They have collected so much art they can only exhibit 10% of it at a time. There’s millions of dollars hidden away in the basement! Let’s spend that money on bringing in more travelling exhibits. Watch attendance skyrocket!