Having the third floor as a specialized private event space feels like a bad move in a number of ways. It's almost as if the AGO wasn't sure the renovation would be the success it is, and so they had to grasp at every future dollar that might become available. Too bad. The modern collection could use the room to become more comprehensive. Despite the airiness of the two floors above up in the tower, the collection still feels as if it could use more room and more contextual pieces to really get going.
The room, overlooking Walker Court, visibly links the upper new tower with the lower old gallery. Having it sit hugely empty most of the time, feels like an unwelcome gap. It leaves the upper galleries at something of a remove, and interrupts a sense of creative vertical progression within the gallery.
Also - the climb up the stairs from the base to the first open landing on the fourth floor is quite a haul for a lot of people. I heard murmurs of discontent from people today, generally elderly, a few of who had to turn around and go back down after finding out their short climb was to be more of a schlep than anticipated. It only seems right that the third floor space naturally reward the intrepid scultural stair climber with at some kind of rest or reward.
As for the Grange, although a I'm a gallery member, I'm refusing to go in as well, since I think what they've done to the interior of it is a thoroughly disrespectful hackjob. It may not have been pure history inside, as it stood, but it was at least respectful and a honest attempt at restoration, back in the day. It would have been a delightful place to rest.
In the main gallery, the workmanship flaws are slight - and happily the exception rather than the rule, thankfully. Unlike the sinking feeling one got, say, with viewing the finishes on the Stair Of Wonders and - well, all over at the ROM. The external cladding on the upper portion of the scultural staircase is the part I think is rather crudely handled, myself. Overall, though, what I did notice today was how the place keeps revealing itself in excellent details - like the triangulated sawtooth flush joints seamlessly joining the strips of wood that form the giant curved glulam beams in the Galleria Italia. You can't even see them unless you're fairly close. Very cool.
