Vancouver Art Gallery Pauses Plans for New Space, Goes "Back to Drawing Board"

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Rendering of the exterior of the new Vancouver Art Gallery building (© Herzog & de Meuron.)

The Vancouver Sun has announced that the Vancouver Art Gallery is sending its plans for the new space back to the drawing board. “On Tuesday, the chair of the gallery board of trustees, Jon Stovell, confirmed that the gallery had suspended its relationship with the chosen architects and is now looking toward a new approach,” according to the newspaper.

The newspaper goes on to add that the design has been scrapped and the gallery will be starting the process toward a new building from scratch. 

“Obviously it’s a difficult adjustment but, I think, a decision that had to be made,” Stovell told the Vancouver Sun. “I think the board and its advisory committees were very aligned on this step, and I think we’ll see a much more realistic and practical and still visionary concept come out of this.

In August, the gallery team announced that construction costs had skyrocketed from $400 million to $600 million. 

At that time, they added that a revised capital project timeline was underway “to address rising costs through changes to the building design, while simultaneously looking for opportunities to create a multi-faceted cultural hub for the province of British Columbia and Canada,” according to the news release.

Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron revealed the now-scrapped design for the new building in 2015.

Source: Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Art Gallery