yyzer
Senior Member
don't know if this should be in the projects section just yet....a possible new Gehry project...
What does Frank Gehry have his eye on this time?
TheStar.com - GTA - What does Frank Gehry have his eye on this time?
May 12, 2008
Christopher Hume
We'll have to wait to see what happens, but word is out that Toronto-born superstar architect Frank Gehry was in town recently to talk about a new project in this city.
No, it's not another Art Gallery of Ontario rebuild; this one is said to be an eye institute.
Though discussions are at the earliest stages, the idea is that Gehry would design a research facility somewhere in the downtown core. The institute is a joint project of the University of Toronto and the University Health Network, which administers the Toronto General, Princess Margaret and Toronto Western hospitals.
Gehry and his family left Toronto in 1947 to move to Los Angeles, where he still lives and works. He has been in practice for years, but it wasn't until the Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao, Spain in 1997 that Gehry found himself the most sought-after architect on the planet. He is certainly the only living architect to have made The Simpsons. Little wonder his firm does projects around the world.
Through it all, Gehry has maintained close contacts with Toronto, where he still has relatives. But his first major project in Toronto didn't come until the AGO commissioned him to do a $254 million remake of the Dundas St. gallery five years ago. Though it will change the face of the institution, it won't be the kind of stand-alone signature scheme that made Gehry's name.
As for the eye institute, the University Health Network makes it clear nothing is imminent.
"It's the first I've heard of this," UHN's vice-president of public affairs and communications, Gillian Howard, said yesterday. "There are lots of things that people in the organization would like to have happen, but we have no plans to build a stand-alone eye institute. People here dream big and there's lots of enthusiasm."
In the meantime, interest in Gehry's AGO remake will increase as it gets closer to completion.
"It's looking like sometime in late October or early to mid-November," says Antonietta Mirabelli, communications manager. "That's the range; we hope to be able to share the exact date soon."
Already it's obvious this will be a design that thrills art lovers, gallerygoers and architecture buffs. But it won't have the impact on Toronto that the Guggenheim had on Bilbao. There the museum was part of a rebuilding program that saved the city, a former shipbuilding centre on the Atlantic coast of Spain, from oblivion.
A highlight of the reworked AGO will be a massive glass-enclosed "visor" that will extend along the front of the building almost a whole city block, from McCaul to Beverly Sts. Officially called the Galleria Italia, it will be the home of the AGO's sculpture atrium and one of the most exhilarating indoor spaces in Toronto.
Indeed, along with the east side of the new Royal Conservatory of Music and the third-floor terrace at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Gehry's Galleria Italia will be as spectacular a room as we have in the city. This emphasis on architecture as space rather than object has brought a new dimension to Toronto. And that can only be good. Which, of course, is why we'd love to see Gehry back for more. An eye institute isn't what we would have expected, but the sheer novelty of the concept would make it doubly interesting.
At this point, however, Gehry can pretty well pick and choose his projects. Toronto is lucky in the sense that he retains a sense of loyalty to the city he left more than 60 years ago. But for that, it's unlikely he would have done anything here.
Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca.
What does Frank Gehry have his eye on this time?
TheStar.com - GTA - What does Frank Gehry have his eye on this time?
May 12, 2008
Christopher Hume
We'll have to wait to see what happens, but word is out that Toronto-born superstar architect Frank Gehry was in town recently to talk about a new project in this city.
No, it's not another Art Gallery of Ontario rebuild; this one is said to be an eye institute.
Though discussions are at the earliest stages, the idea is that Gehry would design a research facility somewhere in the downtown core. The institute is a joint project of the University of Toronto and the University Health Network, which administers the Toronto General, Princess Margaret and Toronto Western hospitals.
Gehry and his family left Toronto in 1947 to move to Los Angeles, where he still lives and works. He has been in practice for years, but it wasn't until the Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao, Spain in 1997 that Gehry found himself the most sought-after architect on the planet. He is certainly the only living architect to have made The Simpsons. Little wonder his firm does projects around the world.
Through it all, Gehry has maintained close contacts with Toronto, where he still has relatives. But his first major project in Toronto didn't come until the AGO commissioned him to do a $254 million remake of the Dundas St. gallery five years ago. Though it will change the face of the institution, it won't be the kind of stand-alone signature scheme that made Gehry's name.
As for the eye institute, the University Health Network makes it clear nothing is imminent.
"It's the first I've heard of this," UHN's vice-president of public affairs and communications, Gillian Howard, said yesterday. "There are lots of things that people in the organization would like to have happen, but we have no plans to build a stand-alone eye institute. People here dream big and there's lots of enthusiasm."
In the meantime, interest in Gehry's AGO remake will increase as it gets closer to completion.
"It's looking like sometime in late October or early to mid-November," says Antonietta Mirabelli, communications manager. "That's the range; we hope to be able to share the exact date soon."
Already it's obvious this will be a design that thrills art lovers, gallerygoers and architecture buffs. But it won't have the impact on Toronto that the Guggenheim had on Bilbao. There the museum was part of a rebuilding program that saved the city, a former shipbuilding centre on the Atlantic coast of Spain, from oblivion.
A highlight of the reworked AGO will be a massive glass-enclosed "visor" that will extend along the front of the building almost a whole city block, from McCaul to Beverly Sts. Officially called the Galleria Italia, it will be the home of the AGO's sculpture atrium and one of the most exhilarating indoor spaces in Toronto.
Indeed, along with the east side of the new Royal Conservatory of Music and the third-floor terrace at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Gehry's Galleria Italia will be as spectacular a room as we have in the city. This emphasis on architecture as space rather than object has brought a new dimension to Toronto. And that can only be good. Which, of course, is why we'd love to see Gehry back for more. An eye institute isn't what we would have expected, but the sheer novelty of the concept would make it doubly interesting.
At this point, however, Gehry can pretty well pick and choose his projects. Toronto is lucky in the sense that he retains a sense of loyalty to the city he left more than 60 years ago. But for that, it's unlikely he would have done anything here.
Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca.
