Good morning.
When news broke last week that the Vancouver Art Gallery had scuttled its decade-long dream of an iconic new building designed by a star Swiss architecture firm, a term from the world of technology, not art, came to mind.
Vapourware: (noun): A piece of software or other computer product that has been advertised but is not available to buy yet, either because it is only an idea or because it is still being written or designed.
The new Vancouver art gallery was to be a world-class building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the same starchitecture firm that designed London’s Tate Modern and Beijing’s National (“Bird’s Nest”) Stadium.
As Marsha Lederman wrote in 2015 when the bold design was unveiled, the plan called for a series of different-sized boxes stacked on top of each other. It was to be “a building wrapped in wood that’s designed to stand out from its city of glass surroundings.” The building was to highlight British Columbia’s Indigenous culture and its construction would use a massive amount of timber to reduce the building’s carbon footprint. A huge courtyard was to be a cultural magnet.
But funding for the building was never entirely secured. In that article from nine years ago, Lederman noted the city was leasing the land to the VAG for the project – which was estimated to be open by 2021 – but was waiting for public reaction before deciding whether to move forward with the building, which was then estimated to cost $350-million.
The VAG announced then its board would donate $23-million.
But for two years, there were no pledges of further money. In 2017, Ann Webb, the gallery’s associate director, director of engagement and strategic initiatives, told Lederman: “This museum will be built.”
She said the project was on track for a groundbreaking in 2017 and a 2021 opening. “We’re on target, on budget, on time.”
By this year, it was none of those things.
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. The federal government pledged only $30-million.
Vancouver’s prominent art collector, art patron and housing developer Michael Audain pledged $100-million. The Chan family had pledged $40-million.
In September, 2023, the gallery held a “ground awakening” ceremony to kick off construction. But it also said it had raised 85 per cent of the then-$400-million budget.
With inflation and increases in construction costs, the project budget has now escalated to an estimated $600-million.
“It’s unprecedented and unforeseen,” VAG director Anthony Kiendl said this past August of skyrocketing costs.
A delay was announced then. By this month, the delay had become a halt. The gallery has severed its relationship with the Swiss firm and is now looking for a less costly option for the city.
Audain told reporter Frances Bula that enthusiasm and a shared sense of determination among gallery patrons and philanthropists were simply missing, imperiling the project with an unwillingness to step up with the kind of money needed to realize the vision.
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,” Audain mused this week. “Maybe I should have made it a matching pledge. Maybe they thought the governments were going to do everything.”
It’s now not clear what the next steps are.
Audain said his $100-million was given specifically to the current building project, but he said he would wait to see what happens with the process to choose a new design before deciding whether to continue to fund the project. He said he believes the gallery should choose a Canadian architect – he mentioned the work of local architects Patricia and John Patkau, who have never been commissioned for a major building in the city despite award-winning work elsewhere.
It’s not clear whether some other donors, such as the Chan family or the estate of now-deceased benefactor Phil Lind, 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, Bula wrote.
Columnist Gary Mason wrote last week the fate of the project should have been obvious a long time ago.
“In hiring Herzog & de Meuron, a name that was meant to impress and yet wouldn’t have meant anything to 99.9 per cent of its population, Vancouver was the retail clerk who spends her savings on a Prada purse, which she safeguards in the basement apartment that she rents.”
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.