The gallery, to date, has raised more than $355-million, too far from the current projected cost of $600-million.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Developer and philanthropist Michael Audain was on vacation in Bangkok when he saw the news: The Vancouver Art Gallery was pausing construction on its new building. He was surprised and upset, but not shocked. Mr. Audain, who has pledged $100-million to the project, said he had known for some time that the gallery’s projected costs had ballooned.
Last year, at a celebratory ground-awakening ceremony, the figure to realize a two-decade-long dream of a signature new home for some of British Columbia’s most important cultural treasures – to replace the current, inadequate building – was pegged at $400-million. That figure is now $600-million and the art gallery says it is working on making the building, as its board chair describes, “a little less architecturally excessive.”
“I’m very disappointed that the current project is not proceeding,” said Mr. Audain, an avid art collector and cultural benefactor whose pledge came with conditions.
The gallery, to date, has raised more than $355-million, too far from the current projected cost to begin the big-ticket work of digging the deep hole, ordering materials, renting equipment – and borrowing the money to do so. This was supposed to begin next month. After acknowledging the soaring costs and pause in construction to The Globe and Mail last week, the gallery put out a hasty statement the following day, announcing the increased costs and the resulting pause.
The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) has already spent just over $60-million on the project. The money has gone to preconstruction costs: design, architects, trades, the gallery’s chief executive Anthony Kiendl said this week. He said he believes spending 10 per cent of the projected budget is “normal” for a project at this stage. Still, if the budget is coming down to $400-million (or so), $60.5-million (so far) is well more than 10 per cent.
Vancouver Art Gallery delays planned construction of new building, citing costs
“We maintained the $400-million as a campaign target because that was what we felt we could reliably do and succeed on,” said Mr. Kiendl, when asked why the gallery stuck with the outdated figure for so long.
“And we’ve been driving to that number both in terms of fundraising and cost savings. And it just recently got to a breaking point where neither were moving enough. So now we have to do something more significant.”
Construction never really began, in spite of the New Vancouver Art Gallery website that states construction commenced on March 6, 2024. Site remediation work has occurred, after the dismantling of temporary modular housing, work paid for by the city. Actual construction had been due to start in October. Now, it’s on “a pause of unknown duration,” as Mr. Kiendl put it.
Gallery officials are both working to cut costs and to raise more money, with an emphasis on the former. The B.C. government, which has already given $100-million, has said it has not yet considered further provincial funding. Mr. Audain said he’s disappointed the federal government has not contributed more. (The federal contribution was just under $30-million in 2022, most of it tied to the project’s sustainability goals.)
There has been no discussion by VAG officials about abandoning the site, given to the gallery in a long-term lease by the city more than 10 years ago. The Herzog and de Meuron design is still in play. Mr. Kiendl says they are working with the team “to explore new design possibilities and to retain as much of the work and knowledge we have acquired together over the past couple of years of design development.”
Alterations have been made and there will be more. VAG officials say they will maintain the core values of the project: significantly more exhibition and storage space; an improvement in education facilities; sustainability (carbon neutral construction and operation); and the gallery remains committed to the woven façade developed with local First Nations.
Other than that, anything goes – and anything may go.
“The building might look different; I don’t know yet,” Mr. Kiendl said. “But we’re also considering every option.”
The main aspect of the design that’s being scrutinized, says board chair Jon Stovell, are the cantilevers in the boxes-on-boxes design.
“These large floors that hang out over other floors … are driving unnecessary high costs,” Mr. Stovell said in an interview this week. “So making a building that’s behaving a little more rationally in terms of, you know, following the rules of gravity and not having these big overhung areas is probably some of the direction we’re going to go in.”
Still, he maintains that a wow factor is important for a new gallery. The building, he said, should be “a place that you want to go and look at the building, as well as the art,” he said.
“I don’t think it needs to be as exuberant as it’s been, but it still needs to be better than just a box.”
Mr. Stovell said he envisions a “fairly quick pivot” to the revised plan, which could be seen as an urgent priority given that years of shifting plans and timelines, through several premiers, mayors and a new gallery director, have tried the patience of some donors.
“The VAG is making a lot of excuses,” said Claudia Beck, a former board member and donor, with her late husband Andrew Gruft, of a significant photography collection. Ms. Beck also learned about the indefinite pause in construction through The Globe’s story.
“Get with it and raise the $250-million or look like fools or very provincial or worse, incompetent,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Globe.
“How does it feel to be a culturally mediocre city? It is making me sick.”
Ms. Beck urged local civic-minded people and nationally prominent companies – she named London Drugs, Lululemon and Aritzia – to “come to the rescue” of the gallery.
“My question is: If you cut more, what is going to be left?”
This week, Mr. Audain said his $100-million pledge becomes payable when certain conditions are met.
“Those conditions have not been met to date obviously and look like they’re unlikely to be met, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be interested in supporting a revised project,” he said.
He noted his donation was to the Herzog and de Meuron building. “So if that’s not going ahead, we will just have to find out what is going ahead.”
In the intervening years, Mr. Audain, who was once actively involved as co-chair of the VAG’s building committee, has remained committed to supporting and funding major art institutions. He has since built his own art museum in Whistler, B.C. (the Audain Art Museum opened in 2016) and his Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation is now constructing a pavilion at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Quebec City. The groundbreaking for that $84-million project took place in May, with the grand opening expected in 2026.
“I am delighted about that,” Mr. Audain said, “but I’m sorry that my hometown can’t get something going after almost 20 years.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to indicate that temporary modular housing at the site of the new Vancouver Art Gallery was dismantled, not demolished. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation is constructing a pavilion in Montreal; it is in Quebec City. This version has been updated.