Toronto Forma | 308m | 84s | Great Gulf | Gehry Partners

buildup said:
Thanks, well that is very sad. Hopefully Mirvish is still gracious enough to create a dedicated space somewhere for his collection. Our city needs that sort of thing. I find the AGO sort of 'light'.
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It'd obviously be great to see some additional art space added to the city in any form anytime there's an opportunity to do so, but the AGO is a wonderful spot and very well renowned. It lands some of the most popular exhibitions as they travel around major galleries across the globe and is a major tourist draw.
 
To put things in perspective, the AGO is 500,000 sqft and only draws 16% of its vistors from outside Canada...I'd love another large gallery in the city, but 60,000 sqft was unlikely to become a global destination or add greater heft to the art scene than the AGO.
 
Yeah, it's a good point. Because there hasn't been an official update on the status of the project recently, it's tough to know if it's an either-or, but it'd be great to see a bunch of space donated to OCAD if they could put together some programming around it.
 
buildup said:
Thanks, well that is very sad. Hopefully Mirvish is still gracious enough to create a dedicated space somewhere for his collection. Our city needs that sort of thing. I find the AGO sort of 'light'.
Click to expand...
Is Mirvish's collection really as great as all that though? I saw the big Stella retrospective at the Whitney a couple of weeks ago, and Mirvish is supposed to be a big Stella collector, but only one of his pictures made it into the Whitney show.
 
Good question. A lot goes into the loaning process for exhibitions, so I don't think the dearth of Mirvish-owned Stellas is indicative of the quality of the collection, but I'd be interested to know the overall "quality." I'd much rather an OCAD-programmed space if Mirvish's private collection is underwhelming by an objective standard.
 
Yes that's true, but there were other collections that had loaned numerous things (it was a BIG show) and collectors love to have their pictures shown in museums (adds to the luster of the picture when it ends up at Sotheby's or Christie's) and I thought there would have been more from Mirvish.
 
The timeline of Stella's career in the cataloge does mention the decision not to tear down the theatre and destroy his work there.
 
OCAD vs. a Mirvish Gallery at the site is not an either/or thing. OCAD is going into the podium of the east tower, and a Mirvish Gallery is planned for the top of the building to the west of the Princess of Wales. That would appear to be further off, possibly not until after both towers are built, so there may be more changes in order there. Who knows, KPMB and/or Time Hortons may move out of the building allowing some of the current space to be used as a gallery, as well as what would be added atop it.

Meanwhile, collection-wise: Mirvish is never planning on having his Stella end up at Sotheby's or Christie's, as his gallery is the intended final resting place for the works he owns, so he has less incentive to boost the works' perceived value at auction.
If you'd like a bit better handle on his collection, we did a piece a few years ago, and ran it here. References to the gallery itself speak to the original plans, which have changed since then of course.

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Good point. I guess what I'm saying that is that if his collection was first rate in terms of quality, breadth or depth, I would have assumed it would have been essential for a major retrospective of the artist.
 
I have no idea how many Stellas he has as compared to Jack Bushes, for example, and it's in that Colour Field area where his collection excels.

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When do people expect that this project will launch? What do you suppose the delay is? Would the design not be finalized at this point?
 
I imagine it'll be a while yet - they haven't even started sales. I'm guessing the project is going through severe budget engineering right now in order to keep costs down.
 
Launch and sales are the same thing no? I'm sure they are trying to figure out materials and also finalize floor plans etc. This is not a box so there will be a ton of different lay outs. All of which will have to be well considered before they launch into sales.
I suspect that sales will be quick though once they start.
 
We already have international interest in our condo sales, but this one will garner even more attention. It's a Gehry. The towers will become internationally-recognized icons for Toronto. Look at how ICE was featured so often in the NBA All-Star Game on TV. And these will be even more dominant in our skyline.

I'm sure that some potential investors have been holding out waiting for this launch -- there's likely already a growing list of purchasers before any pricing or layouts are even finalized.
 
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