Vancouver Art Gallery close to naming architect for second attempt at new facility

It’s been nearly a year since plans were scrapped for a new Vancouver Art Gallery – and the CEOs are getting ready to announce their next move.

Almost a year after shelving plans for a huge facility at Cambie and Georgia streets, the Vancouver Art Gallery is close to choosing a Canadian architect for a second attempt at building a new venue.

Speaking to CTV News, the gallery’s interim co-CEOs said they are taking a different approach as the team prepares to move forward with a new design, after losing tens of millions of dollars on the last project.

“Yes, that is a big pill to swallow,” said co-CEO Sirish Rao.

Approximately $64 million was spent over 15 years before the earlier plan, a nine-storey wood-and-glass structure designed by Herzog and de Meuron, was officially scrapped.

Construction halted in 2024, when the estimated budget ballooned from $400 million to $600 million.

The gallery’s leadership told CTV News some of the money went toward preparing the site for construction, but most of it is gone, spent over the last decade and a half of planning and preconstruction.

Once a new architectural firm is chosen, it will be given a clear mandate.

“We need purpose-built galleries where we can present the most exciting contemporary art while also having intimate spaces for historical art,” said Eva Respini, interim co-CEO and curator at large.

“We don’t have a lecture hall. We don’t have a place where we can screen films or invite writers and artists to come and be in conversation with one another,” she added.

The gallery says the shortlist of architects has been put through rigorous vetting, and whoever is selected will be tasked with asking the community what it wants in a new facility.

“We do not see the model necessarily being about square footage,” Rao said.

“It is about how it welcomes public, how it draws. Is it a tourism magnet?”

Suggestions that the gallery should move into an existing downtown space, such as the former Bay or Nordstrom buildings, were called intriguing, but not practical.

“The Bay is not free,” said Rao. “One would have to purchase the Bay, and then renovations are often more expensive than custom builds.”

The institution currently has access to about $300 million, including a mix of cash, donations, and pledges.

While there’s no confirmed timeline for construction, the gallery says it remains confident.

“The future of the Vancouver Art Gallery is still on track,” Respini said.