Vancouver Art Gallery seeks architects for new gallery

The architect-selection committee for the new Vancouver Art Gallery has released a Request for Qualifications for interested architects with a deadline of October 4th. This process marks the latest development in the Gallery’s relocation since City Council’s granting of a 99-year lease on the 1.8 acre site at Cambie and Georgia in April. The RFQ, available to interested parties via email, details some of the specs for the envisioned 310,000 square foot site - including a 35,000-square-foot permanent collection exhibition space, an auditorium of 300 seats, a new resource and learning centre, a retail space, restaurant, offices, 26,000 square feet for collection storage, and a minimum of 25,000 square feet of outdoor space.

The Globe and Mail reports the selection committee includes the VAG’s present board-chair Bruce Munro Wright in addition to “VAG director Kathleen Bartels; artist Jeff Wall; VAG Foundation chair Michael Audain; past VAG chair David Aisenstat; architecture professors emeritus George Baird (University of Toronto) and Andrew Gruft (University of British Columbia); developers Terry Hui (Concord Pacific) and Peeter Wesik (Wesgroup Properties); VAG board chair emeritus George Killy; Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind; artist Sherry Killam; and the director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Mirko Zardini.”

The following release was posted on the Gallery’s website:

"Responses are invited from all interested architects who meet the qualifications outlined in the RFQ. Interested architects must contact the Gallery at dfrieden@vanartgallery.bc.ca to express interest and to receive a copy of the RFQ. Deadline for submissions is October 4, 2013. Please do not contact the Gallery by phone."

For more information, click here.