vancouver art gallery could be joined by multi-venue 'cultural precinct' for performing arts
dan fumano: council's decision this week is a preliminary step, and breaking ground on a cultural precinct is still years away — and far from a sure thing
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after years of pushing for a “cultural precinct” in vancouver, local arts groups are celebrating a win.
on wednesday, city council unanimously directed city staff to explore the possibility of building a performing arts complex on larwill park, the city-owned property downtown slated to be home of the new vancouver art gallery building.
the council motion cited a recent feasibility study commissioned by the vancouver concert hall and theatre society, a coalition that includes dozens of performing arts groups including b.c.’s largest symphony, opera and dance groups. the study says the city’s venues are insufficient to meet demand and a new 1,800-seat music hall and a 450-seat multi-purpose venue are needed.
council’s decision is “very meaningful for two reasons,” said suzanne anton, a former b.c. attorney general and vancouver councillor who chairs the vancouver concert hall and theatre society.
first, anton said, “in directing staff to work with us, they (council) really are making this an official project.”
second, the direction to look at adding two new concert halls at larwill park to complement the planned gallery represents a “very significant redirection of council policy,” she said.
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until this week, the plan for larwill park — an entire city block bordered by west georgia, dunsmuir, cambie and beatty streets — was to dedicate two-thirds of the property to the new gallery building, and the rest for something else, anton said.
but after the gallery scrapped its design for a new building last year and decided to scale back, the gallery will now require less of the site.
anton said she believes this could mean enough space at larwill park for the new gallery and a performing arts complex, as well as another use — possibly a hotel. the city had considered an office tower on the north part of the property along dunsmuir street, but with the weakened demand for office space and a need for hotel rooms, a hotel makes more sense, she said.
last summer, anton’s group hired diamond schmitt, an architectural firm with expertise in arts buildings, to do the feasibility study.
the firm’s principal, don schmitt, said the study showed that vancouver’s population has been growing as has demand for seeing the performing arts, but venue capacity has not kept pace.
vancouver has about half the number of performing arts seats per capita as toronto or edmonton, schmitt said. melbourne, australia, has three times as many seats per capita.
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the feasibility report looked at three possible sites. one would build on robson square between the current gallery building and the b.c. supreme court. a second would add to the city-owned playhouse and queen elizabeth theatres and build on the adjacent plaza, which is called šxʷƛ̓exən xwtl’a7shn. the third option would be larwill park.
the site of the future art gallery in downtown vancouver
jason payne
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for vancouver coun. sarah kirby-yung, who introduced this week’s council motion with fellow abc coun. lenny zhou, larwill seems like the best option.
“we have an unprecedented opportunity,” kirby-yung said. “when you think about creating a legacy for the city, it’s very rare that you have such a large piece of land in the heart of your downtown, which is so well-situated. … the beauty of it is that the city of vancouver already owns it.”
ballet b.c. managing director kathy mackenzie said her organization, which is part of this coalition, has had growing attendance in recent years, particularly among young people. they want to offer more programming to meet demand, she said, but struggle with “trying to jigsaw our way into performance time at the queen elizabeth theatre.”
“we’re really excited to see the city get onside,” mackenzie said. “this is a preliminary step, but the fact that they’re willing to appoint city resources to work on this project is very encouraging.”
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council’s change of direction is a preliminary step. and the remaining steps are not exactly minor. among other things, the project will require a lot of money from donors and governments.
some observers might be skeptical of this project’s prospects for success, considering the gallery’s recent setbacks. after many years of fundraising for a new home, the project budget ballooned last year and the gallery’s board decided to go back to the drawing board, even after pre-construction work had already started at larwill park and a reported $60 million had been spent.
anton is confident that with dozens of organizations pulling in the same direction, vancouver can support the precinct.
“there’s no question that the capital fundraising piece will be a challenge,” anton said. “but we are determined to really make a robust case for ourselves with every step as we go, so that when we have a final version, we will have also have a very good case for support and going forward with that.”
if everything goes well, it would still be at least a few years before any project breaks ground, anton said.
but for now, the society has secured $100,000 in funding from heritage canada to do the next phase of work, in partnership with diamond schmitt again to determine by next year “what we’re going to build, where we’re going to build it, and in what order we will build things.”
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the organization is encouraging public feedback through a new website at vancouverculturalprecinct.ca.
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