The Vancouver Art Gallery’s plan for a new building by a Swiss architecture firm was cancelled this week, and the gallery is now looking for a less-costly option for a new facility.Andy Clark/Reuters
When Vancouver Art Gallery enthusiasts proposed moving from a small space on Georgia Street to the city’s old courthouse just over 40 years ago, the whole city got behind it.
“I think the town was galvanized then. I felt there was much more excitement,” remembers Vancouver’s prominent art collector, art patron and housing developer Michael Audain. “The slogan was ‘Take the Gallery to Court.’ It was very successful.”
Mr. Audain said gallery directors, board members, and supporters like him have tried to generate similar enthusiasm over the past decade – and a lot more money – to move from the courthouse to a striking new building.
But the enthusiasm has been missing this time, he mourned aloud this week after news that the gallery’s vision of a marquee building by a world-recognized Swiss architecture firm has been cancelled and the gallery is now looking for a less-costly option for a new facility.
The private donors never came on board in big enough numbers. Mr. Audain had donated $100-million in the hopes that it would bring on others, just as he had been inspired to donate by a previous $40-million gift to the gallery from the Chan family.
The Vancouver Art Gallery board’s most recent annual report lists only $7.1-million from private donors.
“I was disappointed in the private fundraising. Maybe I made a mistake,” he mused this week. “Maybe I should have made it a matching pledge. Maybe they thought the governments were going to do everything.”
The provincial government offered $100-million in total grants – $50-million pledged by then-premier Gordon Campbell in 2008 and another $50-million from the NDP government in 2022.
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But the federal government contributed only $30-million – a dribble that Mr. Audain, who has contributed to an $80-million art gallery in Quebec City honouring the painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, said comes nowhere near the support that eastern Canadian cultural institutions often get.
The VAG’s funding problems went beyond donor support. The cost of the Herzog & de Meuron design of stacked boxes has shot up from a previous estimate of $400-million to $600-million. Reducing the costs would dramatically alter the current design.
As a result, the gallery has ended its 10-year relationship with the Swiss-based Herzog. The gallery’s planners are now looking for a new architect, a new budget and a way to repurpose the wreckage of the current effort.
“Our goal is to create a building that embodies a diverse and inclusive artistic vision while ensuring financial sustainability within a fixed budget,” said gallery director Anthony Kiendl in an official statement this week. “We recognize that inflation has put tremendous pressure on our plans, as it has done with many capital projects following the pandemic. It has become clear that we require a new way forward to meet both our artistic mission and vision and our practical needs.”
A statement from the firm said it was “disappointed” in the decision but wished everyone well.
Mr. Audain, who said his $100-million was given specifically to the current building project, said he believes the gallery should choose a Canadian architect – he mentioned the work by local architects Patricia and John Patkau, who have never been commissioned for a major building in the city despite award-winning work elsewhere – and he will wait to see what happens with that process before his foundation makes a decision about re-donating.
“I think most of our board are still committed to a new art gallery for Vancouver. I still strongly believe that the old building doesn’t serve the purpose. It’s not commensurate with the status of our artists.”
It’s not clear whether some other donors, such as the Chan family or the estate of now-deceased benefactor Phil Lind, where $5-million is committed to the new building, can or will pull back their money.
What is clear is that the gallery management and board will need to go forward in a very different way, after having spent $60-million on the current effort, out of the $350-million it had raised since previous American-born gallery director Kathleen Bartels first launched the idea of a new gallery.
Mr. Audain and others say the current design was a very expensive one for many reasons. The building was a vertical assembly of cantilevered boxes – something that any architect or engineer will say is far more difficult and costly to build than a basic square because of the requirement for much stronger supports and more exterior surfaces that need to be insulated.
As well, the Herzog & de Meuron design called for a steel structure. Almost no one in Vancouver builds with steel because Canada has a tariff on it, aimed at protecting the country’s remaining small steel industry. So local builders almost always choose reinforced concrete rather than trying to import Chinese steel. That, along with other elements, would have required tradespeople with particular kinds of expertise that locals don’t have.
As well, the huge jump in the estimated cost – up by 50 per cent in less than a year, even though construction costs for builders across the city have risen 50 per cent over four years – suggests the original estimate was never realistic.
Last year, the gallery’s board appointed developers Bruno Wall and Jon Stovell to a “capital project expenditure committee” and it was the recommendation from those two that put the final nail in the Herzog and de Meuron project.
The city of Vancouver and the province say they remain committed to a new building. Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung said the city wants a gallery on the city-owned Larwill Park site as part of renewed cultural district.
“I think it shows some courage to pivot like this. This provides the opportunity for something new. We really want to see the art gallery delivered on the site.”
The province also indicated it is standing behind renewed efforts.
“The Province continues to work in partnership with the VAG on securing other sources of funding, including with federal and municipal partners, and we look forward to hearing more about the next phase of the project,” said an unattributed statement from the Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Ministry.
Bob Rennie, a noted art collector and philanthropist who made his fortune in real-estate marketing, has been a persistent critic of the original project since the beginning, arguing it was too extravagant for a city of Vancouver’s size and too focused on starchitecture.
He argues the gallery planners should stay modest and perhaps even abandon the Larwill Park site.
Mr. Rennie also thinks there should be some accountability for how $60-million of taxpayer and donor money got spent so wastefully.
“This is such a black mark for the city and the taxpayer. And there’s been no audit, no mea culpa, nobody taking responsibility.”