The Vancouver Art Gallery relocation will happen sooner or later. With the sale of the Canada Post building in downtown Vancouver, talks are once again ramping up for possible future locations for the Vancouver Art Gallery. Here is another unique proposal that calls for building the new Vancouver Art Gallery over the Granville Loops, which are soon to be removed.
We first told you about the unsolicited 4 satellite site proposal, which included a portion of the Vancouver Art Gallery to be located under the Granville Bridge, Stanley Park and Gastown, while maintaining some of the art at the current location. This new unsolicited proposal call for an iconic site at the foot of the Granville Bridge, and if it were to be built, would become an instant landmark.
The City has been preparing for the removal of the “Granville loops” at the north end of the Granville bridge. Once cleared, this site will be even larger than Larwill Park. It’s aligned on one of the most important axes in Vancouver and is the doorway to the downtown peninsula for people arriving by foot, bike, bus and car. A new Vancouver Art Gallery on this site would be transformative.
On the Granville Loops site would be so much more than an isolated icon. On the roof of the new gallery, a new plaza, Vancouver’s largest civic space, would unite both sides of Granville Street and would become a “welcome mat” for the downtown peninsula. A pedestrian and bike path already planned for the centre lanes of the Granville Bridge would become a linear sculpture park connecting the new Gallery to Granville Island. Tourists who have rented bikes for a morning ride on the seawall would return them at a bike share hub before strolling the galleries. Classrooms, performances spaces and cafes would all spill onto a plaza that is constantly in use.
Imagine Granville Street closed to traffic and using this new site for hosting large scale public events and concerts. The Welcome Mat could also work as the city is planning on adding a pedestrian/cycling path down the middle of the Granville Bridge.
For more information on the project check out The Mat.
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