Art gallery, neighbours reach pact on new look
By JAMES ADAMS
Saturday, February 5, 2005 - Page A13
The $195-million renovation and expansion of the Art Gallery of Ontario seems almost certain to occur now after individuals and groups bitterly opposed to the development reached a surprise agreement with gallery officials late yesterday.
"It's a very wonderful outcome," Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the AGO, said last night. "We have been talking for the last 36 hours on this. . . . I think what's happened speaks of the community co-operation that we'd always hoped for."
The talks, conducted at city hall, were initiated Wednesday by the Grange Park Preservation Group, one of the key opponents of the development, designed by Frank Gehry, the Los Angeles-based, Toronto-born superstar architect.
Using CITY-TV urban affairs reporter Adam Vaughan as a "facilitator," the group presented the AGO with a list of conditions that, if met, would result in a withdrawal of its appeals. Negotiations began Thursday, primarily between Mr. Vaughan (who lives near the AGO and says he was acting as a concerned resident) and Steve Diamond, the AGO's high-powered lawyer, perhaps most famous in Toronto real-estate circles for getting approval for the huge Minto condominium towers development at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue three years ago.
Until yesterday, it appeared the AGO and its opponents were in for a lengthy, expensive hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board, the quasi-judicial body that rules on development appeals. The AGO, facing seven appellants at a hearing slated to begin Monday and run five days, needed a "win" at the OMB if its wish to start construction in May was to be realized.
Last November, city council unanimously approved the redesign, which, upon its completion in 2008, will stand as Mr. Gehry's first public commission in his hometown.
Yesterday's agreement, reached initially around 4 p.m. with six of the seven appellants, involves no major alterations to the wood, glass and titanium design that Mr. Gehry has been refining since he unveiled its initial iteration in January, 2004. Instead, in exchange for getting neighbourhood "permission" to proceed with its plans (including the erection of a tall tower on its south end), the AGO has agreed to nine conditions.
These include a commitment to "consult with its neighbours in regard to any further expansion of the AGO" after the Gehry design is completed as well as a refusal to erect billboards or advertising facing Grange Park to the gallery's south. The AGO also agreed to the "immediate rezoning" of a small parking lot to the gallery's southeast into a park; the provision of $40,000 for "alternative recreational programs" during construction of the renovation; the creation of a crosswalk on Beverley Street (the gallery's western perimeter); and "fully subsidized placements" of local children in AGO art programs during the annual spring break and summer vacation, for a period of 10 years.
"We felt it was the right thing to do for the neighbourhood and the gallery," said Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, one of the main organizers of the opposition to the redevelopment, which will increase the AGO's viewing space for art by 40 per cent. Ms. Ramkhalawansingh, who lives just to the west of the gallery, was a major opponent of the AGO's last expansion, completed in 1993.
As of last evening, the one holdout on the deal was Steve Mann, a professor with the University of Toronto's electrical- and computer-engineering department. However, around 8 p.m., the AGO announced he had joined his fellow appellants in signing a withdrawal of his appeal. A pioneer of wearable computer technologies, Mr. Mann lives and works in a property directly across from the AGO, on Dundas Street West. At community consultation meetings last spring and summer, he expressed concern that the development might affect airflow and sunlight -- his property has rooftop solar panels.
Representatives of the appellants and the AGO are still expected to appear before the OMB Monday morning because the board has to review the settlement offers.
As a result of yesterday's agreement, the only big hurdle the AGO now faces is money. The gallery received a total of $48-million from the Ontario and federal governments for its expansion plans. Kenneth Thomson, Canada's most famous art collector, has announced he would be giving $300-million in art and $70-million in cash. The financial shortfall is now estimated to be $70-million.
^ It will be interesting to see these two together.
By JAMES ADAMS
Saturday, February 5, 2005 - Page A13
The $195-million renovation and expansion of the Art Gallery of Ontario seems almost certain to occur now after individuals and groups bitterly opposed to the development reached a surprise agreement with gallery officials late yesterday.
"It's a very wonderful outcome," Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the AGO, said last night. "We have been talking for the last 36 hours on this. . . . I think what's happened speaks of the community co-operation that we'd always hoped for."
The talks, conducted at city hall, were initiated Wednesday by the Grange Park Preservation Group, one of the key opponents of the development, designed by Frank Gehry, the Los Angeles-based, Toronto-born superstar architect.
Using CITY-TV urban affairs reporter Adam Vaughan as a "facilitator," the group presented the AGO with a list of conditions that, if met, would result in a withdrawal of its appeals. Negotiations began Thursday, primarily between Mr. Vaughan (who lives near the AGO and says he was acting as a concerned resident) and Steve Diamond, the AGO's high-powered lawyer, perhaps most famous in Toronto real-estate circles for getting approval for the huge Minto condominium towers development at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue three years ago.
Until yesterday, it appeared the AGO and its opponents were in for a lengthy, expensive hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board, the quasi-judicial body that rules on development appeals. The AGO, facing seven appellants at a hearing slated to begin Monday and run five days, needed a "win" at the OMB if its wish to start construction in May was to be realized.
Last November, city council unanimously approved the redesign, which, upon its completion in 2008, will stand as Mr. Gehry's first public commission in his hometown.
Yesterday's agreement, reached initially around 4 p.m. with six of the seven appellants, involves no major alterations to the wood, glass and titanium design that Mr. Gehry has been refining since he unveiled its initial iteration in January, 2004. Instead, in exchange for getting neighbourhood "permission" to proceed with its plans (including the erection of a tall tower on its south end), the AGO has agreed to nine conditions.
These include a commitment to "consult with its neighbours in regard to any further expansion of the AGO" after the Gehry design is completed as well as a refusal to erect billboards or advertising facing Grange Park to the gallery's south. The AGO also agreed to the "immediate rezoning" of a small parking lot to the gallery's southeast into a park; the provision of $40,000 for "alternative recreational programs" during construction of the renovation; the creation of a crosswalk on Beverley Street (the gallery's western perimeter); and "fully subsidized placements" of local children in AGO art programs during the annual spring break and summer vacation, for a period of 10 years.
"We felt it was the right thing to do for the neighbourhood and the gallery," said Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, one of the main organizers of the opposition to the redevelopment, which will increase the AGO's viewing space for art by 40 per cent. Ms. Ramkhalawansingh, who lives just to the west of the gallery, was a major opponent of the AGO's last expansion, completed in 1993.
As of last evening, the one holdout on the deal was Steve Mann, a professor with the University of Toronto's electrical- and computer-engineering department. However, around 8 p.m., the AGO announced he had joined his fellow appellants in signing a withdrawal of his appeal. A pioneer of wearable computer technologies, Mr. Mann lives and works in a property directly across from the AGO, on Dundas Street West. At community consultation meetings last spring and summer, he expressed concern that the development might affect airflow and sunlight -- his property has rooftop solar panels.
Representatives of the appellants and the AGO are still expected to appear before the OMB Monday morning because the board has to review the settlement offers.
As a result of yesterday's agreement, the only big hurdle the AGO now faces is money. The gallery received a total of $48-million from the Ontario and federal governments for its expansion plans. Kenneth Thomson, Canada's most famous art collector, has announced he would be giving $300-million in art and $70-million in cash. The financial shortfall is now estimated to be $70-million.
^ It will be interesting to see these two together.