Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) (Toronto, Canada) : Aerial context view showing the blue titanium south wing facade seen at the end of John Street

Creator:

Gehry, Frank Owen, 1929-

Published/Created:

317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2004-2008 (alteration)

Physical Description:

480,000 ft2 (area)

Date Depicted:

2009
1950 AD - 2010 AD

Materials:

blue titanium cladding
glass
steel
wood

Notes:

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%.

Variant Titles:

Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario

Topics:

Architecture -- Canada -- 21st century -- (YVRC)

Period/Style:

Twenty-first century

Culture:

Canadian

Accession Number:

1A1-GF-AGO-A5

Genre:

architecture (AAT)
exhibition buildings: art museums (AAT)

Format:

Image

Content Type:

Sculptures, Models, & Architecture

Rights:

Copyright Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc
The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.

Access Restrictions:

Yale Community Only

Digital:

architecture; contemporary (1960 to present); Art museums; adaptive re-use buildings; exhibition buildings; museums; art museums

Source Creator:

Gilchrist, Scott

Source Title:

Archivision Addition Module Six

Source Created:

2878 Chamonix, Montreal QC
Archivision, Inc.
2009

Source Note:

Purchase, Visual Resources Collection, May, 2011; photographer Scott Gilchrist

Yale Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Digital Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Local Record Number:

4125

OID:

10073512

PID:

digcoll:1785824