herzog & de meuron plans new building for vancouver art gallery

following a previous proposal released in 2015, the vancouver art gallery has now unveiled the final design of its new gallery building. the 300,000-square-foot structure has been conceived by herzog & de meuron to serve the institution’s expanding collection and to accommodate new art and educational programing for its growing audience. situated at larwill park — unifying the crossroads of downtown, yaletown, gastown, east vancouver and chinatown — the new building seeks to establish itself as a creative and cultural hub for local, national, and international visitors of all ages.

image © herzog & de meuron (also main image)

herzog & de meuron have designed the vancouver art gallery’s new museum as a sculptural, symmetrical, upright building combining opaque and transparent surfaces, with larger volumes concentrated at the top and minimal mass at the bottom. by lifting the bulk of the structure high above the street, the design allows light and air to filter down to an active, open-air courtyard below.

image © herzog & de meuron

‘the project for the new vancouver art gallery has a civic dimension that can contribute to the life and identity of the city, in which many artists of international reputation live and work,’ explains christine binswanger, partner in charge, herzog & de meuron. ‘the building now combines two materials, wood and glass, both inseparable from the history and making of the city. we developed a façade out of glass logs which is pure, soft, light, establishing a unique relation to covered wooden terraces all around the building.’

image © herzog & de meuron

‘the new vancouver art gallery is a vertical building, distinctly spectacular at first sight, with an arrangement that resonates with the place where it is built,’ continue the architects. ‘it offers ample outdoor spaces that are sunny in summer and protected from rain in winter, to suit the climate and life in british columbia. visitors to the building will be able to perceive vancouver’s urbanity and its amazing natural setting in many different ways.’

image © herzog & de meuron

the unveiling of the design coincides with the announcement of a $40 million CAD lead gift from the chan family. in recognition, the vancouver art gallery’s new building will be named ‘chan centre for the visual arts’. the next step for the vancouver art gallery capital campaign will be to continue its work with senior levels of government and the private sector to secure the additional funding needed to begin construction. see designboom’s previous coverage of the project here.