AGO reveals what its major expansion will look like

Art Gallery of Ontario external rendering by Play-time, courtesy of AGO, Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects and Two Row Architect.

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) released renderings this week of a major expansion that will add 40,000 square feet to the museum, tied to a donation from the chairman and chief executive officer of Canada Goose.

The $35-million gift will result in at least 13 new galleries “united” by consistent and clean finishes, spanning across five floors, according to the AGO.

External renderings of the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery – named after the Canada Goose donor – show a boxy building mounted on the museum’s curved entrance structure.

Inside renderings depict column-free galleries with high ceilings and hypothetical gallery-goers hovering around modern art pieces in wide open spaces. The open-ended structural capacity will make it possible to bring in complex immersive installations, according to the AGO.

The gallery said one of the cornerstone principles for the project is to take the open space as an opportunity to shape it around the works they are displaying, dividing galleries into more intimate spaces when the art calls for it. These new additions will connect with four locations within pre-existing galleries.

The AGO is aiming to join a small number of museums that have received a CAGBC Zero Carbon Building certification by operating without burning fossil fuel for the new space.

According to the AGO, this will be the seventh expansion of the museum since its inception in 1900. The expansion is estimated to cost $100-million, and is currently undergoing a municipal and public review process.

During the expansion, the AGO will remain open. However, gallery spaces adjacent to the construction might close at times.