After 10 years, the new Vancouver Art Gallery finally seems to be moving along. The gallery just announced the short list of architects who are finalists in the design competion for the new building downtown (replacing the old one, pictured here):Â Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York), Herzog & de Meuron (Basel), KPMB Architects (Toronto), SANAA (Tokyo), and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (New York).
The Gallery said it received proposals from some 75 firms from 16 countries, and has been sifting through them since September. Except for the omission of Renzo Piano, the go-to museum architect (alas), and the addition of KPMB, this is pretty much the usual suspects.
The winner will be announced this spring.
This whole project has been controversial, but the city council approved the new site last spring, and designated a site. The new building will double the space of the old one, providing 310,000 square feet of space — much more of the collection will go on view. Read more here.
I’m not close enough to the city, or the situation, to know if this is the right way to go, in all honesty. My hope is that the building is not too big, not too expensive, not too much of a reach for the Vancouver audience.