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Anyone who wants a sneak preview of the South side stairs should head down to Grange Park in the next couple days. The scaffolding has been removed so you can see it right now, but another scaffold is going to be built so it'll be hidden again after that.

The South stairs are way more dramatic than the North stairs, despite only being a fraction the size. They shoot way off the side of the building, and they're hollow through the middle, they look almost unreal in person.
 
Took these photos of the south stair today.
 

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From the Star:

Falling in love with the AGO (really)

Jul 07, 2008 04:30 AM
Martin Knelman

The late Ken Thomson was intrigued by model ships as an art form, but you could hardly say the Art Gallery of Ontario has experienced smooth sailing since deciding eight years ago to accept Thomson's offer to help reinvent the gallery.

In fact, the AGO experienced just about every nightmare that a cultural institution can face during a building project. Most dramatically, during the first six months of 2004, it seemed to be having a public nervous breakdown, driving away supporters at an alarming rate.

But four years later, as it prepares to unveil the spectacular makeover of its building on Nov. 14, the AGO is showing signs of a psychic makeover to match its physical transformation. It has found ways to embrace Toronto – and the feeling is mutual

In early 2004, such an outcome seemed preposterous. For a while there seemed to be a fresh debacle every week. Disenchanted benefactors attacked the AGO's project as "needless destruction." Embattled neighbours complained they were being sold out. Alienated staff had been on the brink of a strike. Hit-and-run art thieves exposed security weakness by stealing miniature ivory sculptures owned by the gallery's chief benefactor, whose patience was severely tried.

The board of directors was split into factions. The public was outraged when its beloved Group of Seven paintings were put into storage to save money. A culture of secrecy and paranoia prevailed.

This hardly seemed to be establishing the tone of confidence required for a huge fundraising campaign. But fast forward to 2008 and you get a totally different picture. Recently the gallery completed a remarkable turnaround when it announced it had surpassed its $254 million target and has decided to seek another $22 million for various enhancements.

The money was required to finance a makeover by Frank Gehry, the world's most famous living architect, who spent formative hours of his childhood within walking distance of its Grange location.

The numbers themselves tell an amazing story. Besides the $70 million Thomson contributed (in addition to his $300 million art collection) and $67 million from the federal and provincial governments), the gallery has raised $117 million from other private sources.

An astounding 38 donors gave $1 million or more, including a dozen who gave $2 million or more.

"Art matters" is the slogan spread by the AGO through cheery pins it gives away. But in recognition of those involved in raising close to $1 billion for various Toronto cultural groups over the past six years, there should also be a button that says: "Art needs money."

And happily, after years of lagging behind their counterparts in major U.S. cities, the most prosperous citizens of Toronto have realized that there is no better way to dispose of their wealth than funding the arts.

Thomson, one of the 10 richest people in the world, had not been in the habit of lavishing his fortune on the cultural organizations of his hometown. But he had a major concern – what to do with his $300 million art collection.

That art collection was his legacy, and he wanted it to stay intact. But the AGO, despite being one of the largest art museums in North America, did not have nearly enough room to accommodate it. Thomson offered a solution: a huge infusion of cash to launch an expansion project.

Thomson and Gehry, both over 70, bonded. A glorious scheme was hatched, but there was a catch. The gallery would need to raise almost as much money from government as it was getting from Thomson, and even more from other private sources.

The challenge was daunting and the competition from other arts groups fierce. But even while other cultural projects encountered serious obstacles, the AGO cruised to victory.

How could this be? Well, apparently "Transformation AGO" is more than a catchphrase. The place has changed its attitude and improved its manners, becoming more open, accessible and consultative, while winning friends and creating the sort of climate in which large cheques are written.

In short, it has learned its lesson, cleaned up its act and become a place Toronto is ready to fall in love with.

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/455309

AoD
 
Hey Scrappy - thanks for those pics! They give a hint that building may end up being enjoyed like no other in the city. Gehry really adds some substance to the word whimsy with those stairs, and I am really looking forward to hanging out on them.

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Excellent views Scrappy, thank you. I'm looking forward to visiting this place in a few months. It will quickly become one of the city's highlights.
 
There's quite a bit of the titanium going up on the south facade right now. It still doesn't have the protective coating taken off so it's easy to miss because it's not blue. Expect to see it very soon.
 
from the Star...(note interesting comment by Gehry)

Lots of light puts focus on art at remade AGO

TheStar.com - Columnist - Lots of light puts focus on art at remade AGO

July 14, 2008
Christopher Hume

The Art Gallery of Ontario won't reopen until Nov. 14, but already it's clear Frank Gehry has provided more than an addition; this is a top-to-bottom remake.

Even venerable Walker Court, the indoor courtyard that sits at the heart of the AGO, has lost a ceiling and gained a glass roof. On Dundas St., the gallery has a new face. The main feature here, a gently curving glass "visor," extends from one end of the building to the other. This is Galleria Italia, sculpture atrium and viewing platform.

Though the cladding on the rear addition is titanium, a Gehry trademark, the gesture that appears again and again is the spiral, as in spiral staircase. The most dramatic example protrudes 13 metres from the south façade, offering spectacular views of Grange Park below, the city and Lake Ontario beyond.

Another circular staircase moves in an out of Walker Court, which will also be a display space for sculpture. The party room will be upstairs now. And as for the old Tanenbaum Sculpture Atrium, it has been reduced in size, reclad with Douglas fir and become all warm and cozy.

What's also becoming apparent as areas of the new building are completed and handed over to curators is the sheer extent of the late Ken Thomson's $300 million contribution. His collection will occupy no less than 28 galleries. In some cases, this will mean work by some artists is displayed in more than one location.

Curators have been installing the artwork with an eye to what the AGO's Linda Milrod calls "adjacencies." That means, for example, putting Thomson's Lawren Harrises next to the gallery with the AGO's Harrises.

One level below the entrance, which has been moved west along Dundas St. to align with Walker Court, Thomson's model ship collection will be exhibited. This is a genre the AGO has never pursued, but it could well become one the most popular destinations.

Unlike Daniel Libeskind's Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum, which sacrifices large amounts of interior space in the name of architecture, Gehry's AGO is a facility for the viewing of art. That means lots of light – indeed, light is the subtext to the whole project – as well as straight walls and right angles.

Gehry makes no bones about his desire to do a free-standing building in Toronto. "It's hard to remodel a building, especially a Barton Myers building," he says. "And you rebuffed me for the opera house."

It should have been on the waterfront – that really would have been something.

As it is, Toronto got Gehry at his most restrained. Yet it is precisely a project such as this that reveals the sheer brilliance of his architecture. This is Gehry as problem-solver, not icon maker. Visitors will always know how to get in and out, where they are and where the art is. The collection will be exhibited spectacularly, bathed in light levels unseen since the roof was constructed.

Gehry also talks about the AGO as an urban project. "You respect your neighbours," he says, "even when they don't look like what you want them to look like."

One thing's for sure: the AGO will make all its neighbours look better, even Will Alsop's remarkable Ontario College of Art and Design next door. "I raised my building to meet Alsop's," Gehry says. "I hope he likes it."

When complete, the AGO and OCAD will turn this corner into one of Toronto's most engaging, a spot every visitor has to see.

Torontonians, on the other hand, can savour the slow unfolding of the building over time. There's enough going on here to keep us coming back, over and over again.



Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca.
 
Gehry for the Aquarium.

Aquehryum?

Seriously. Gehry, who loves fish, and has employed their shape and their scales in so many of his buildings, should do an aquarium, and it should be ours.

Now, who has $500 000 000?

42
 
Setting aside the sour grapes of a famous starchitect, I think wev'e got an excellent crop of new cultural buildings, with plenty to differentiate them. We're an eclectic enough city to absorb influences from outside, and we have a strong enough design identity of our own to produce great buildings that express those values too. Taken as a whole - including the flashy ROM - I think they're all pretty good examples of design as a problem-solving process for the institutions housed in them. Tight budgets and competition for funding probably focussed the minds of the architects and the boards who directed them. Gehry's AGO reno is a refreshingly understated departure from the Big Hair stylings that many expected - probably the glass Galleria Italia is the most City Room like exception.
 
interchange42 said:
Gehry for the Aquarium.

Aquehryum?

Seriously. Gehry, who loves fish, and has employed their shape and their scales in so many of his buildings, should do an aquarium, and it should be ours.

Now, who has $500 000 000?

42
Click to expand...

Now here's what I imagine a Gehry aquarium to look like, especially a guy who loves fish. Why not the Scarborough Bluffs? (Not to scale.)

2006-06-chemosphere.jpg


From LA Curbed

Fan-tastic!

500px-troy_mcclure.thumbnail.png
 
Isn't Gerhy scheduled to do the EyeBank at Spadina Circle? He could make a giant eyeball that blinks. It could be seen all the way from King St.
 
Update: They're putting up the Titanium cladding for the north facade of the Contemporary Block.

I found it strange that there is so little information on just what the Dundas Street Colonnade will look like at the street level. What are those pillars supporting Galleria Italia going to be clad in? What is the ceiling going to be like - there are ventilation ducts, but are they for the street level? The question goes on and on...

AoD
 
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