My story today about the Canada Post building at Georgia and Hamilton/Homer now being on the market.
Besides the issues identified in the story, this also has implications for the Vancouver Art Gallery. The gallery had been asked to explore other options for a new site, besides the Larwill Park site two blocks away that VAG director Kathleen Bartels has been pursuing for over five years.
I’m told by various sources that architect Peter Busby had been asked to come up with a design showing how it could all work. (There could be towers at the back end, for example, to help finance the building’s repurposing into a gallery.) But the relocation committee was told recently that there were too many seismic issues — odd for a building constructed to have trucks drive into it. Some people say that’s hooey and just part of Bartels’ unwillingness to look at any other options than the Larwill Park site. Whatever the case, the building now being put out for sale would make it that much more difficult for the VAG to get the dibs on it.
57 responses so far ↓
1 Roger Kemble // Oct 13, 2012 at 12:11 pm
VAG has been exploring, for the last two years, the possibilities, costs and siting, of a new (to meet its explicit requirements) building on Larwell Park.
So to assume VAG will even consider that dated monstrosity is very presumptive. Trust me I lived with that building since its inception: the general conclusion has always been jeeezus, that’s an ugly mudder phuccer.
You buck the grain . . .
To convert from an out dated provincial mail sorting depot to an art gallery will be incredibly expensive.
I have done a few conversions, although none this extensive, and always came away, nodding my head, this could have been less expensive to start from scratch and the rationalized reno ultimately doesn’t meet the specs anyway.
If VAG is to make a significant contribution to a Vancouver Cultural Precinct, if Vancouver is to be a player in the art world then it will have to be in more than a half baked conversion job: surely is not the building itself a very significant part of the collection . . .
My immediate reaction Everyman @ #49 is, if you have to ask, you’ll never know!
2 brilliant // Oct 13, 2012 at 2:33 pm
@Roger Kemble 51-read todays G&M: Audain is quietly admitting defeat on the field at Larwill and fleeing with his art collection to Whistler. Bartels is engaged in a messy poo-flinging fest with Bob Rennie. That $300 mil Larwill Park thing ain’t gonna happen.
3 Roger Kemble // Oct 13, 2012 at 3:35 pm
brilliant @ #52
“That $300 mil Larwill Park thing ain’t gonna happen.”
Then VAG had best stay were is, Michael take his Diego to Whistler, let the local architectural butchers do what they will with the OPO and, the cultural precinct wait for better times . . . on la di da . . .
4 Glissando Remmy // Oct 13, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Thought of The Day
“My name is Bond. VAG-abond…this should be VAG-s logo, slogan, letterhead…”
And this is how I started my comment on Vancouver Art Gallery latest escapade back in Feb. 2nd of 2011, here #2:
http://www.francesbula.com/uncategorized/while-council-prepares-to-give-vancouver-art-gallery-a-shot-at-empty-block-potshots-exchange/
Roger was there, Mezzanine was there, Bill McCreery was there, Higgins was there, F. H. Leghorn was there, MB was there… Deja, Deja Vu, Deja Entendu Anyone? 🙂
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
PS.
My twopence.
VAG stays at Robson.
We, Vancouverites, keep the money.
We use the money to start a FREE Citywide Program teaching kids how to paint, sculpt, draw, invent, tinker, build model ships and planes that sail and fly, learn about textiles, master a musical instrument, other than the pathetic recorder… you know, the good times. $400 Million could buy lots of art and music supplies don’t you think?
If on the other hand you want to keep the Postal Office Building (my preference) and want a little more enhancement, to tame the critics than bring one of the two in town…
Norman Foster (1) or Jean Nouvel (2), both versed in retrofitting old anchor buildings:
1. Great Court of the British Museum
wwwDOTfosterandpartnersDOTcom/projects/0828/defaultDOTaspx
2.Renovation of the Lyon Opera House
wwwDOTarchitectureDOTaboutDOTcom/od/findphotos/ig/Jean-Nouvel/Lyon-Opera-RenovationDOThtm
All it needs is a… new roof and a little bit of genius, my dearest! 🙂
Sorry for the “DOT” thingy but Frances blog does not allow more than ONE link per comment without sending it to the Moderation Purgatory…
5 waltyss // Oct 14, 2012 at 12:25 am
;@MB #44: If you want to turn over 2/3 of it to the VAG, don’t you need some world class art to put into it. And while it would allow them to attract bigger shows, their permanent collection is not really up to it.
On the other hand, while no real beauty, the old PO is probably better than what they will replace it with.
6 Glissando Remmy // Oct 14, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Afterthought of The Day
“Now that I’m thinking about it, in regards to the Canada Post building eventual retrofit, Norman Foster Partners are ahead Jean Nouvel, 2 to 1…”
Following my #54 Post-Scriptum I’d like to add this:
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/0686/default.aspx
FWIW, ’cause you all know by now…
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
7 Bill Lee // Mar 13, 2013 at 6:03 pm
We can’t blame Kathleen Bartels for this, she’s been long gone from MOCA and her 13 year tenure there.
“LACMA has (again) proposed a takeover of MOCA (LA Times story; Michael Govan post). Preliminary reports say the deal would preserve the MOCA name (“brand”) and both downtown buildings. It’s contingent on LACMA raising $100 million—exactly for what isn’t clear….
Should the merger happen, Los Angeles would be virtually the only big American city lacking a dedicated museum of contemporary art.
[ March 7, 2013 ]
But what about this regarding new design.
Perfectly detailed, perfectly gorgeous (and perfectly dull)
By C.C. Sullivan | March 13, 2013
“The decision by the Harvard Art Museums to engage Renzo Piano, one of the greats of our time, for a big renovation and expansion, could not have been less interesting.
Piano is a genius with an unmatched ability to create highly tuned interior environments that showcase and conserve artworks. His success in the United States, where he loves to build, is impressive….
Other recently announced commissions for major art venues follow similarly predictable paths. The big dogs pull for Piano or another verifiable maestro, like Chipperfield in St. Louis…..
Museums usually turn out to be just as conventional as the corporations and socialites who run them. These one-percenters are also corporate directors, university trustees, hospital board members and generally busy-busy folk. Even when they name an “outside” search committee or run a well-organized competition, on the key scores of risk-taking and innovation these big museum groups tend to disappoint. They seek splashy news and imagery suitable for T-shirts.
Architects have a right to dismiss and distrust the processes that yield a chosen few…. [ more ]