Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
Archivision Base to Module 13
Preferred Title:
Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
Alternate Title:
Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario
Image View:
Exterior of the FRANK restaurant (fine dining)
Creator:
Frank Owen Gehry (American architect, born 1929)
Location:
site: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Location Note:
317 Dundas Street West
GPS:
43.653889-79.392778
Date:
2004-2008 (alteration)
Cultural Context:
Canadian
Style Period:
Twenty-first century
Work Type 1:
art museum
Classification:
architecture
Material:
wood; glass; blue titanium cladding; steel
Technique:
construction (assembling)
Measurements:
480,000 ft2 (area)
Subjects:
architecture; contemporary (1960 to present); Art museums; adaptive re-use
Description:
The Art Gallery of Ontario was established in 1900 (as the Art Museum of Toronto). Building at the current location was begun in 1910. The AGO embarked on a $254 million (later increased to $276 million) redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB). Although Gehry was born in Toronto, and as a child had lived in the same neighbourhood as the AGO, the expansion of the gallery represented his first work in Canada. Gehry was commissioned to expand and revitalize the AGO, not to design a new building; as such, one of the challenges he faced was to unite the disparate areas of the building that had become a bit of a "hodgepodge" after six previous expansions dating back to the 1920s. The AGO reopened in November 2008, with the transformation project having increased the art viewing space by 47%. (Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia…
Image Description:
Design includes a new social gathering place situated at the corner of McCaul and Dundas streets, offering direct access from the street and operating at independent hours from the Gallery. This space includes a two-level gift and book shop, a fine dining restaurant, a casual café, the Jackman Hall lecture theatre, the members? lounge and a free contemporary art space for new projects by emerging artists. The furniture in the Gallery?s restaurant (FRANK) and café was selected by Frank Gehry.
Collection:
Archivision Addition Module Six
Identifier:
1A1-GF-AGO-A194
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)