BC government to make Vancouver Art Gallery announcement tomorrow

Revised 2021 design of the new building for the Vancouver Art Gallery at Larwill Park. (Vancouver Art Gallery)

Will the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) be finally able to put shovels into the ground at the parking lot site at the corner of West Georgia and Beatty streets?

An announcement will be made by BC Minister of Tourism Lisa Beare at the VAG on Friday morning, with VAG board members and Indigenous artists also in attendance.

The precise details of the announcement are unspecified, but it will be “in support of the VAG and BC’s arts community.”

There is a possibility this could be the provincial government providing the VAG with new additional funding to fill its budget gap for building its $400 million new purpose-built, state-of-the-art art gallery building at the Larwill parking lot in downtown Vancouver.

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This would also come on the heels of the provincial government’s decision to pause its controversial plan to demolish and rebuild the Royal BC Museum campus in downtown Victoria at a cost of about $800 million.

In contrast, the VAG is currently short $130 million — a figure that was considerably narrowed by the VAG’s fundraising efforts from two significant contributions over the past 12 months.

In November 2021, the VAG received $100 million as a gift from the namesake family foundation of Michael Audain, a renowned art collector and philanthropist, and the chairman of local development firm Polygon Homes.

In June 2022, it received $29 million from the federal government for the new structure’s Passive House green building design.

For the past year, it was attempting to fill this gap with $80 million from the federal government and “other community partners,” and an additional $80 million from philanthropy.

Revised 2021 design of the new building for the Vancouver Art Gallery at Larwill Park. (Vancouver Art Gallery)

2021 design of the new Vancouver Art Gallery. (Herzog & de Meuron/Perkins + Will)

Prior to Audain’s announcement, the VAG raised $40 million from the Chan Family Foundation, $50 million from individual donors and foundations, and $50 million from the provincial government’s commitment dating back to 2008 by then-Premier Gordon Campbell. The City of Vancouver has offered its property — the size of two-thirds of a block — for a nominal lease over 99 years.

Following Audain’s contribution, the VAG appeared to be highly confident about making big moves to proceed with its plan to construct the new building. The architectural design was also significantly revised leading up to Audain’s announcement.

In February 2022, it submitted its development permit application to the municipal government for the new building. The City’s development permit board approved the application in May.

During the June 2022 announcement by the federal government, it was stated that the new gallery will open in 2027. Construction would have to begin in the very near future in order to meet that schedule. For several years, TransLink has been using the parking lot as a temporary layover and parking facility for buses, but it recently stopped using the site and reverted to parking its buses on the Cambie Street side of the block.

vancouver art gallery larwill park parking lot

Site of the future home of the Vancouver Art Gallery at 668 Cambie Street. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

2021 design of the new Vancouver Art Gallery. (Herzog & de Meuron/Perkins + Will)

The new VAG design, by the world-renowned architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, with contributions by local firm Perkins & Will, creates a 228-ft, 10-storey structure with the irregular appearance of differently sized stacked boxes.

It will have a total floor area of 300,000 sq ft, including 82,000 sq ft of dedicated gallery space — more than twice the space of the VAG’s existing home in the former courthouse building at Robson Square.

Other uses entail a theatre, library, artist studio, retail, restaurant, cafe, and childcare facility. The new building will be surrounded by a lower public courtyard below the structure.

2021 design of the new Vancouver Art Gallery. (Herzog & de Meuron/Perkins + Will)

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