City report backs Larwill Park site
Land deal contingent on the VAG securing funding by April 2015
The Vancouver Art Gallery may finally have a new home at Larwill Park across Cambie Street from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
The deal, laid out in a staff report to the city’s mayor and council, is contingent on the gallery securing 75 per cent of the project’s total capital costs — estimated at $ 300 million — by April 30, 2015.
It ends nearly three years of speculation and debate within the city’s arts community about whether a new stand- alone gallery is needed and, if so, where it should be built.
The report recommends turning over more than 1.8 acres, approximately two- thirds of the city- owned Larwill site at 688 Cambie Street, to the gallery on a 99- year lease.
Bordered by Cambie, Dunsmuir, Beatty and Georgia streets, and neighbouring major cultural venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse and public library, the Larwill site is considered an ideal location to develop into an arts and entertainment hub.
The land deal, worth an estimated $ 200 million, represents the city’s commitment to boosting its global arts profile, said Mayor Gregor Robertson.
“I am convinced that this is both a huge opportunity for our city to step up on the world arts and culture stage with a new gallery, and maximize the best use of a big empty parking lot downtown,” he said.
VAG director Kathleen Bartels, long a proponent for a purposebuilt gallery space, said she is “absolutely thrilled” the city appears ready to support a proposed gallery expansion.
“For arts organizations, the arts community, ( and) everybody who plays a vibrant part in culture, I think this really will be a signature moment for all of us,” she said.
Bartels began the push to secure public land for a new gallery in mid2010.
The focus narrowed to Larwill Park in February 2011 when the city agreed to give the VAG two years to prove it could raise the required capital and operating costs, among other conditions, including securing the support of the local arts community.
Robertson said those conditions have now largely been met.
“I wouldn’t support ( the recommendations) if I wasn’t convinced by the economic case,” he said.
Michael Audain, a former VAG chair, is a strong supporter of the move.
“It indicates that the council understands that Vancouver has become a very important international centre for the visual arts,” he said. “The present quarters that the art gallery is stabled in are really quite outmoded and inadequate and don’t really provide an opportunity to tell the story of art in British Columbia — there’s no real permanent collection.”
Audain is building a gallery in Whistler to house part of his collection — the largest private collection of Emily Carr’s work.
But critics, including Vancouver realtor and art collector Bob Rennie, have said it’s too big a capital project for Vancouver and will be a drain on corporate donors and taxpayers alike.
“The amount of money the VAG failed to raise over the past two years and aspires to raise over the next two does not reflect the reality of the current economy, the already stretched supply of public, philanthropic and charity funding in the region, and the fierce degree of competition for it,” Rennie said in an emailed statement.
In particular, many question the possibility of landing the federal support the project needs. The gallery has banked on raising $ 100 million from Ottawa. The remaining $ 200 million is expected to be split between the B. C. government and privatesector donations. The VAG has already received a $ 50- million grant from the province ( now worth an estimated $ 54 million) along with another $ 40 million in private- sector pledges for the construction fund.
Bartels said fundraising efforts are expected to ramp up significantly should council approve the recommendations next week.
“We can’t be asking any level of government at this point for additional funding until we ( officially) have a site, and not until that happens will we really be able to go forward and say, ‘ This is what we have. This is the architect. This is how we envision the building looking, and we need your support.’
“That will take a lot of work behind the scenes, a lot of meetings.”
Bartels said the gallery has built strong relationships with banks and corporations across the country, including Toronto and Calgary, and will be looking Canada-wide for financial support.
“We feel confident those pledges will be there,” she said.
Bartels said it could take up to eight years before a new gallery opens its doors.
Robertson said he will do what he can to lobby government to invest in the project.
“Infrastructure dollars have been scarce for some years,” Robertson said. But, he added, the city has had recent success lobbying Ottawa to put more federal money into major community projects, such as highways, public transit and trade- corridor-related projects.
“Between that and the Olympics, we’ve had a good track record of working with provincial and federal partners. We’ve got other needs, but this will be an important one,” he said.
Among the key recommendations contained in the staff report is a proposal to close up to half a block of Cambie Street, between Dunsmuir and Georgia. The road will be transformed into a public square, potentially stretching across to the plaza in front of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
The city will also look to sell off the remaining one- third of the site, approximately one acre fronting Dunsmuir Street, for high- density office and commercial space mixed with some residential development.
Vancouver is relying on the development deal to pay down a $ 50- million encumbrance it already has against the land for improvements made to various civic theatres, including the Queen Elizabeth, Orpheum and Playhouse, in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The city’s recommendations come after a report, prepared by Lord Cultural Resources for the VAG, found the proposed new gallery would be operationally viable, and could financially support itself on its current funding model. The report did not deal with how the gallery would raise money needed to build its new home, but instead looked at postconstruction operations.
In January, senior city staff members held their own closeddoor meeting attended by a roster of Canadian art and philanthropy experts to consider whether VAG’s proposal is sound.
The current staff report is slated to go before council on April 23, with a vote expected the next day following public presentations on the issue.
Should it be approved, the report opens the doors for other arts and culture groups in Vancouver to actively pitch their own case on why they should be chosen to take over the VAG’s existing site at 750 Hornby Street.
The Rattenbury building, as it is formally known, is owned by the province and leased to the City of Vancouver. The city has said it wants to retain the site for the cultural sector.