Gehry's Spiral Staircase - a photo on Flickriver

South Wing of the Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Canada

by navema
www.navemastudios.com

ABOUT FRANK GEHRY’S AGO DESIGN:

The new AGO is Toronto-born Frank Gehry’s first building in Canada and marks the very place where he made the initial connection between art and architecture. Hallmarks of his AGO design connect the city and the Gallery in provocative new ways including dramatic sculptural staircases, the warmth of Douglas fir, and the extensive use of glass which infuses the galleries with natural light.

From the outside of the gallery the most striking addition is the long glass façade that covers the Galleria Italia on the north side of the building. Below the glass wall, the gallery’s main entrance has been re-aligned with the center of the building. At the gallery’s south end, Gehry added the largest addition to the gallery through a new wing. This south wing is clad with blue-tinted titanium and house the gallery’s contemporary galleries. This wing is also pierced by two cantilevered serpent-like staircases on both sides.

Upon entering, visitors will see that Gehry has grouped the gallery’s bookstore, restaurant, theatre and café to the east. This commercial hub also includes the AGO’s free contemporary gallery. The atrium is linked to the gallery by a set of stairs and a winding ramp that snakes around an opening to the galleries below. directly ahead, Gehry has restored the historic walker court. However, the new walker court is anchored by a wood paneled serpent-like staircase, which breaks through the glass ceiling and joins the exterior stairs on the south wing’s north face.

Inside the galleries, Gehry has exercised more subtlety giving many of the old European galleries and Henry Moore wing only minor upgrades to tie them into the overall scheme. However there are many spaces where Gehry had room to play. The new gallery spaces like the glass façade Galleria Italia and south wing galleries demonstrate this freedom. Gehry also designed a series of seating for the gallery, producing chaise lounges he named ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’.

Despite the seemingly disconnected nature of Gehry’s additions, the gallery is now fully unified with a harmonious flow. Overall, the new transformation added 97,000 square feet of space, increasing the available gallery space by 50%. As such, the gallery remains one of North America’s largest museums, now boasting a total of 583,000 square feet of space.

South Wing
While the Galleria Italia may be the most iconic section of the new addition, the south wing is its most expansive. The wing features four stories that overlook Grange Park to the south. The main level features a glass enclosed sculpture atrium which is link between Walker Court and the Grange building’s member’s lounge. Above the atrium is the first of three levels that are clad in the blue-tinted titanium and glass curtain. The large glass windows on each level have again been humanized with a series of horizontal wooden louvers. On the top floor, large skylights funnel light into the galleries. These upper floors are connected by a 1.5m spiral staircase that features windows on all sides. Inside the galleries, Gehry conceived of a space arrangement that features many small intimate galleries within the larger space.

Galleria Italia
The new Galleria Italia is located on the second floor at the north end of the AGO. The gallery was named after the 26 Toronto families of Italian descent who each contributed 500,000 CAD to the AGO building project. This gallery stretches the entire length of the AGO with its long glass façade anchored to a ribbed wooden structure. The façade measures 137m and overhangs the sidewalk below. The glass curves toward the building at the top, resembling an overturned canoe. the angle of the glass reflects the old Victorian row houses across the street from the gallery, juxtaposing the old and new. At each end of the glass span, sections appear to be peeling away from the structure, like sails caught in the wind.

Inside the glass façade, a sculpture gallery is bathed in natural light. stretching the entire gallery are massive wooden beams made from Douglas Fir that resemble a ribcage. This extensive use of wood gives the gallery a natural warmth that humanizes the space. The glass wall also allows visitors to peer out into the street, highlighting the muted flurry of activity below.

Walker Court
Thanks to the relocated entrance, the Walker Court, the historic heart of the AGO, now lies at the centre of the building. Gehry has restored the court to its original splendor, adding a glass ceiling that floods the space with light. The court looks out toward the street level entrance to the north and the original Grange building to the south, which now serves as the member’s lounge. Wooden walkways surround the court and let visitors peer down as the walk between galleries one floor above.

At the far end of the court, Gehry has added a spiraling staircase that is enclosed on all sides. The Douglas Fir clad stairs spiral straight out of walker court, breaking through the glass ceiling. Once outside they morph into the metal staircase that is connected to the contemporary galleries in the south wing.

ABOUT FRANK GEHRY:

“The Art Gallery of Ontario is where I first experienced art as a child and it was Grange Park where I played, so this project means a great deal to me. The building we envision will connect the city and its people to great art and art experiences.” Frank Gehry, Architect

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Frank Gehry moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947. Gehry received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California in 1954, and he studied City Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

In subsequent years, Gehry has built an architectural career that has spanned four decades and produced public and private buildings in America, Europe and Asia. In an article published in the New York Times in November 1989, noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote that Gehry's “buildings are powerful essays in primal geometric form and ... materials, and from an aesthetic standpoint they are among the most profound and brilliant works of architecture of our time.”

His work has earned Gehry several of the most significant awards in the architectural field. In 1977, Gehry was named recipient of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1989, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize – perhaps the premiere accolade of the field – honoring “significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.” In 1992, he received the Wolf Prize in Art (Architecture) from the Wolf Foundation. In the same year, he was named the recipient of the Praemium Imperiale Award by the Japan Art Association to “honor outstanding contributions to the development, popularization and progress of the arts.”

In 1994, Gehry became the first recipient of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award for lifetime contribution to the arts. In 1998, he received the National Medal of Arts, and he became the first recipient of the Friedrich Kiesler Prize. In 1999, Gehry received the Lotos Medal of Merit from the Lotos Club, and he received the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects. In 2000, he received the Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts.

In 2002, Gehry received the Gold Medal for Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Gehry was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1987, a trustee of the American Academy in Rome in 1989, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1991. In 1994, he was bestowed with the title of Academician by the National Academy of Design. In 1998, he was named an Honourary Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts.

In 2003, Gehry was inducted into the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and he was designated as a Companion to the Order of Canada. Gehry has received honorary doctoral degrees from Occidental College, Whittier College, the California College of Arts and Crafts, the Technical University of Nova Scotia, the Rhode Island School of Design, the California Institute of Arts, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, the Otis Art Institute at the Parsons School of Design, the University of Toronto, the University of Southern California, Yale University, Harvard University, and the University of Edinburgh. In 1982, 1985, and 1987-89, Gehry held the Charlotte Davenport Professorship in Architectureat Yale University. In 1984, he held the Eliot Noyes Chair at Harvard University. In 1996-97, he was a visiting scholar at the Federal Institute of Technologyin Zürich, Switzerland. Gehry was elected to the College of Fellows ofthe American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.) in 1974, and his buildings have received over 100 national and regional A.I.A. awards.

Gehry's work has been featured in major architectural publications and in national and international trade journals. Gehry's architectural drawings and models have been exhibited in major museums throughout the world.

For his website, visit: www.foga.com/

ABOUT THE AGO:

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is an art museum in Toronto's downtown Grange Park district. With 583,000 square feet of physical space, the AGO is the 10th largest art museum in North America.

The museum was founded in 1900 by a group of private citizens, who incorporated the institution as the Art Museum of Toronto. The museum was renamed the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1919, and subsequently the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1966.

The current location of the AGO dates to 1910, when the gallery was willed the estate known as the Grange, a historic Georgian manor built in 1817, upon the death of Goldwin Smith. In 1911, the museum leased lands to the south of the manor to the City of Toronto in perpetuity so as to create Grange Park. In 1920, the museum also allowed the Ontario College of Art to construct a building on the grounds.

The museum's first formal exhibitions were opened in the Grange in 1913. In 1916, the museum decided to begin construction of a small portion of a planned new gallery building. Designed by Pearson and Darling in the Beaux-Arts style, the first galleries opened in 1918. Expansion throughout the 20th century added various galleries, culminating in 1993, which left the AGO with 413,000 sq ft of interior space.

The AGO expanded its facility in 2008 with an innovative architectural design by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. Although Gehry was born in Toronto, and as a child had lived in the same neighborhood 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.

ABOUT THE AGO COLLECTION:

The AGO holds more than 79,000 works in its collection, which spans from 100 A.D. to the present. Highlights include:

The Canadian collection vividly documents the development of the nation's art heritage since pre-Confederation, including one of the largest and finest Inuit art collections in the world. The collection includes pivotal works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Lucius O'Brien, James Wilson Morrice, Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, David Milne, Emily Carr, Paul-Emile Borduas, Joyce Wieland, and Kenojuak Ashevak. Masterpieces of European art include works by renowned artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte.

The AGO maintains a comprehensive collection of Contemporary art spanning from 1960 to the present, reflecting global developments in artistic practice across all media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, projection art, and installation art. The collection is defined by strong holdings of leading Canadian artists such as David Altmejd, Brian Jungen, Francoise Sullivan, Jeff Wall, Shirley Wiitasalo, and inflected by major works by international artists such as Mona Hatoum, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Tino Sehgal, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol. Artists represented in career-spanning depth include Iain Baxter& / N.E. Thing Co, Jack Bush, Betty Goodwin, General Idea, Robert Motherwell, Kazuo Nakamura, Greg Curnoe, and Michael Snow.

The AGO houses the world's largest public collection of works by internationally renowned British sculptor Henry Moore.

A collection of more than 40,000 photographs represents the emergence of the medium in all its artistic, cultural and social diversity. Works by 19th-century British, French, American and Canadian photographers, and 20th-century modernists, including a significant group of 1850s prints by British photographer Linnaeus Tripe, one of the foremost collections of works by Czech photographer Josef Sudek, and more than 18,000 press photographs from the Klinsky Press Agency taken in the 1930s and 40s.

The Thomson Collection at the AGO includes a broad range of works, from European to Canadian art, ship models and decorative arts. Its European collection includes 900 works from the 12th to the 19th century, featuring Peter Paul Rubens' 17th-century masterpiece, The Massacre of the Innocents. The Canadian collection includes signature works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Paul Kane, Lawren Harris, and Paul-Emile Borduas. The Thomson collection of ship models features pieces from the Napoleonic era to the 19th century, and a decorative arts collection includes more than 500 objects of international significance, including the 12th-century Malmesbury Chasse.

Taken in: Canada / Ontario / Toronto / Chinatown (show map)

Taken on: August 3, 2010

Tags:

navema

Toronto

Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario

AGO

South Wing

spiral staircase

stairs

Frank Gehry

architect

gallery

museum

art

wood

The Grange

Grange Park

Canadian

Canadian Art

Canadian artists

contemporary art

photography

European Art « less

Sets appears in: • navema canada

Groups appears in: • What's your angle, buddy? • Frank Gehry's Architecture more » • !* Lines 彡Curves & Shadows - No People or Flowers! P1/A2* • Interiores de Espaços Publicos - Public Space Interiors • * Looking UP! • Architectural ideas for Adelaide • Stand here, please « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-ZR1, f/3.3, 1/320 sec, 4.5mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-ZR1
Aperture:	f/3.3
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	4.5mm
ISO:	800
Exposure Bias:	+0.33 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh
Show full info

Stats: 87,196 views / 3 comments