On Tuesday, the Vancouver Art Gallery unveiled Herzog & de Meuron’s vision for its new museum home in the city’s downtown. The structure—which would cost about $265 million USD—features more than 85,000 square feet of exhibition space, double the museum’s current size. The Swiss-based architecture firm, a recipient of the 2001 Pritzker Prize, selected a wood-clad construction that includes a series of rectangular stacks, each unique in size. The gallery would stand in contrast to the existing steel-and-concrete buildings in the area. The design is a nod to the West End neighborhood, one of Vancouver’s earliest settlements and a onetime densely wooded part of the city.
“Herzog & de Meuron’s buildings not only effectively and elegantly meet the needs of their users, they also become places that are part of the cultural DNA of a city,” said Kathleen Bartels, director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, in a statement. “Over the past 15 years, our collection has grown by more than 250 percent, attendance has increased 350 percent, and membership has increased by 300 percent. The conceptual design for the downtown building responds brilliantly and efficiently to the changing needs of our institution and our community.”
Ground for the new home of the Vancouver Art Gallery is expecting to break in late 2017, and be completed by 2021.
