[ProjectEnd]

Are people surprised? I predicted this when I first saw the rendering.

The reason attendance did not spike, is that we didn't get the Gehry that most people wanted to see. (the grand spectacle) When you build modest and tasteful buildings, you please the more conservative among us but the average person on the street is not going to go out of their way and pay to see it. This building seems to be getting little buzz outside of Toronto. My artsy friends in Montreal haven't heard or read anything about it. This building is a nice "Toronto Gehry" but it's not the over-the-top Gehry people expect and that's why it won't get the huge crowds that were expected. People don't pay big bucks to see tasteful, restrained, ordinary, nice, respectful or conservative. (all of which I have seen used to describe this building)

Your 'artsy' friends haven't heard of a major gallery reopening in the largest city in the country? As SimplyDan suggests, I find that hard to believe.

 

[adma]

It might just as well be a broader dawn-of-the-recession "starchitect fatigue", anyway. After all, the ROM Crystal is the "over-the-top Libeskind people expect"--or at least as over-the-top it can be without demolishing the existing ROM totally--and it hasn't helped ROM attendance any more than Gehry's helped the AGO...

 

[syn]

I wouldn't exactly call this building modest. It's pretty hard to ignore.

The issue here isn't with starchitecture. If these institutions thought all they needed to do was build some attention grabbing structure and people would automatically come, they were mistaken. No matter how impressive an extension/building you construct, if the underlying marketing efforts and business practices aren't sound then things will still probably fall below expectations.

 

[ProjectEnd]

I'm not sure why so many members seem to believe that we have failed at creating our own 'Bilbao-effect' when Gehry himself has denounced the notion as 'bullshit.' Gehry is obviously being coy as he knows the effect which that gallery had on the rest of the city, but several other authors have also written on the subject.

Fundamentally, I don't think the new AGO was created as a tourist destination so it's ridiculous to say that it has failed at this task.

Bad economy = people have less money = people cut luxuries out of their lives.

 

[Torontovibe]

I find that very hard to believe. Do they live in a cave?

They live in the Gay Village, so that's pretty damn close. They spend all their free time in dark, mysterious places. lol

 

[ProjectEnd]

Must...resist...urge...to post....inappropriate...picture...

 

[Urban Shocker]

It's hard to believe that the ROM and the AGO didn't intend their new buildings to be major tourist attractions. Getting as many people through the front doors as possible is the lifeblood of those two institutions. Indeed, the report that preceded the ROM design competition called for the construction of an iconic building to act as a 3D logo for the institution and boost sagging attendance. The AGO was renovated because of Thomson's extraordinary beneficence. Few locals paid much attention to Gehry until the success of Bilbao, then we just had to get him because everbody else seemed to want him - and the AGO hired him without a design competition.

 

[androiduk]

This building sure is photography friendly.

 

[wyliepoon]

Strangely, I find that few out-of-town (Asian) bus tours stop at the ROM or the AGO for photo-ops. Asian bus tours from Toronto to other cities often drive visitors to landmarks (such as Parliament Hill in Ottawa, St. Joseph's in Montreal or the Capitol in Washington) and herd them off the bus for 15-minutes of picture taking to show the folks back home. A lot of Asian-American tours coming to Toronto often stop at City Hall (as seen by the number of tour buses that are parked on Queen Street), but few ever frequent the AGO or the ROM.

Sure the ROM and AGO photogenic to locals, but most out-of-towners might have other ideas. For many of them, City Hall, CN Tower and Eaton Centre remain the must sees and must-take-photos-of.

 

[Tewder]

I find it hard to believe that some here are blaming (st)architecture for declining admission at the AGO. It is a gorgeous addition which just happened to open its doors in the very midst of a recession. The Four Seasons Centre presells most of its performances to its season ticket owners, like Leaf games at the Air Canada Centre, and is not reliant on the large number of walk-in visitors that the AGO has to attract at $18 per walk-in to meet its break-even numbers. These are not comparable situations.

 

[interchange42]

Neither the AGO nor the ROM are suffering from declining attendance. They are both up from where they were before their Extreme Makeover: Museum Edition. They just aren't up as much as the projections had them.

Meanwhile the two remaining display cases in the Thomson Ship Model gallery are complete... except that one has quite the cracks in one of the glass panels. Get Germany on the phone...

42

 

[taal]

Neither the AGO nor the ROM are suffering from declining attendance. They are both up from where they were before their Extreme Makeover: Museum Edition. They just aren't up as much as the projections had them.

Meanwhile the two remaining display cases in the Thomson Ship Model gallery are complete... except that one has quite the cracks in one of the glass panels. Get Germany on the phone...

42

Exactly ....

Moreover, I'm sure attendance for such cultural institutions across the world are declining in relation with the current recession. Spending on such events is usually the first thing to go when disposable income falls.

Again, this applies to the AGO more so then the ROM every single person I've talked to / most reviews absolutely love the addition!

 

[alklay]

And the bottom line is that the numbers are no doubt higher as a result of the addition (than they would have been if the addition was not done...or done as well as it was).

 

[Urban Shocker]

The economic downturn will affect these institutions in different ways. I doubt if any of them are insulated from the effects of adversity.

An individual one year adult membership to the ROM and AGO is $90; for the Gardiner and Textile Museums it's $60; for the Bata it's $50.

A 7 opera subscription with the COC ranges from $273 to $2,058. A 6 ballet subscription with the National ranges from $225 to $1,239. A 7 concert Prestige series subscription with the Symphony ranges from $168 to $784.

There are many other variables - the level of government support, the strength of existing endowment funds, the ability to attract new members and to retain existing ones, etc.

To the south, Opera Pacific, Baltimore Opera, and Connecticut Opera, have shut down, the Met has scaled back, Washington National Opera have cancelled their Ring, and various art museums and dance companies are in similar decline.

 

[adma]

From Built Heritage News #139...

4. What Happened to The Grange?
Catherine Nasmith

In all the well deserved praise for the Frank Gehry alterations to the Art Gallery of Ontario one area has been overlooked by all the critics -- the small but highly significant Grange. The Grange is designated, and also a National Historic Site.

The treatment of the Grange is confused, inappropriate and a not so funny comedy of tragic errors. Luckily the changes are reversible. But lets go back to the beginning.

D’Arcy Boulton Sr planned The Grange, one of Toronto’s oldest buildings, in 1808 while he was Attorney General of Upper Canada. It was not built until 1817- 18, after the War of 1812. There is no record of its architect or builder. It was altered in 1843, with an addition and re-organization of the plan for more elaborate entertaining. At that time the all of the interior was updated to the fashionable Greek revival style, plaster, woodwork and fireplaces. The house passed through the family to Henry Boulton. When he died his widow married Goldwin Smith, who is described in Toronto Observed as “Toronto’s leading intellectual and the most acerbic political commentator of the later Victorian era.†Smith undertook further alterations, including a heavy Victorian staircase, replaced the wooden portico with the stone porch that is there today.

The Grange predates Campbell House, the other similar surviving Georgian residence from the post War of 1812 period. Campbell house was relocated to it’s present site, the Grange enjoys its original view down John Street towards Lake Ontario over the former front lawn and circular drive.

Goldwin Smith donated the house after his death in 1910, to become the Art Museum of Toronto, which evolved into the Art Gallery of Ontario. As the gallery expanded the Grange was used for offices. As a centennial project, the Grange was restored under the direction of Mary Alice Stewart with assistance from Peter Stokes. The Victorian staircase was replaced with the current elegant circular stair.

Since 1971 it has operated as a house museum, complete with docents in period costume, housing a collection of furniture and paintings collected to show what the house might have been like during the mid nineteenth century. Much of that furniture is extremely valuable, but only a few pieces can actually be traced to the house. In spite of the place of affection the Grange has in the hearts of many who enjoy it as a change of pace from the rest of the Gallery, its visitor numbers have been dwindling in recent years. The tormented route to it through the basement of the AGO didn’t help things.

When the Gehry renovations began, the understanding was that the project would not include any work in the Grange, which planned to continue to operate as usual-- managed by the AGO with advice from The Grange Council. ERA architects were retained as advisors to Mr. Gehry on heritage matters such as the treatment of Walker Court.

Michael McLelland, a partner in E.R.A. is also a past chair of The Grange Council. The current chair is Rob Brough of Goldsmith Borgal and Partners.
Even though it was not contemplated in the renovation plans for the Gallery, Transformation AGO has ended up changing the house museum into the members lounge, and in the process treated the nationally significant artifact like exploitable real estate. Gone are the carefully collected wallpaper, chandeliers, furnishings, and paintings, replaced by a bizarre combination of beige painted walls, bleach blond flooring, and modern black leather and chrome furniture. It looks as if the same brush that went over the rest of the Gallery was thoughtlessly applied to the Grange.

Interviews with Jennifer Rieger, The Grange curator, Michael McLelland, and Rob Brough have yielded the following sequence of events.

While the Grange was closed for the construction of the rest of the gallery, Grange Council had begun to think about what might be a better future for the building. A few years ago contemporary artists did installation pieces in the house attracting quite a different audience, pointing to a new way of dealing with the property. A number of issues emerged from their discussions. The existing presentation dealt only with one period and did not tell the story of other occupants or the role of the house as part of the history of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Grange, donated to the Gallery in 1911, has now been a part of the building’s story for nearly as long as it was a residence. It was isolated from the rest of the AGO, and the AGO was not comfortable with operating a traditional house museum.

Grange Council was well advanced in their plans to re-present the Grange history when AGO management delivered the shocking news that plans had changed and that the Grange was to become the new member’s lounge. The space that had been allocated for the lounge in the main gallery was needed for another purpose. Furniture for the lounge had already been donated by the Danish embassy, and returning it was not an option. The idea of combining a lounge on the second floor with other interpretive displays on the ground floor was considered but there were building code issues that could not be resolved in the time available.

When the use for members lounge was announced Rob Brough considered his options. “I felt that the proposal put the Grange as a historical artifact in great jeopardy. I debated going public with my concern but decided instead to work through Grange Council to ensure that whatever happened to the building would be reversible.†Working closely with Jennifer Rieger, the Grange Curator, Rob Brough and Edwin Rouse of E.R.A. ensured that the features noted in the national Commemorative Integrity Statement were respected. When the carpet was removed the shape of the Smith stair was still visible in the flooring. Instead of removing the old flooring, the new floor floats over the old without damage to the original. The paint was selected from a Farrow and Ball line and is a colour that might have been used. Ms. Rieger has been gradually adding back in some of the historic artifacts to the rooms. The furnishings have been evaluated and are in storage until their future can be decided.

While researching this article I had an opportunity to ask Mathew Teitlebaum, the AGO’s Executive Director, “What had happened to the Grange.†It was a relief to hear him say “I’m not that happy with it either.†He noted the floors as being wrong, and indicated that what we see there now is temporary until such time as the AGO can take a breath and think carefully about how to move forward. “I would like to see the house restored to its former prominent position as a centre of Toronto society.â€

The role as the member’s lounge is here to stay, but how that is done and how the building’s nearly two hundred year history is presented is being explored. Mr. Teitlebaum invited written suggestions.

Perhaps a reasonable goal would be to complete the re-think in time for the 2011 centennial of the Gallery’s founding.

The AGO's July 8, 2008 announcement of the new member's lounge is at the link below

http://www.artmatters.ca/blog/index...range-2008-and-the-Ridley-Members-Lounge.html