Architecture News

KPMB and Formline Picked to Design New Home for the Vancouver Art Gallery After Ouster of Herzog & de Meuron

After a months-long search, British Columbia’s Vancouver Art Gallery has revealed the selection of a team to lead the design of a new, purpose-built home at Larwill Park on West Georgia Street. The announcement concludes a process that kicked off this February when the Gallery, which is the largest art museum in Western Canada, invited 14 all-Canadian firms to submit design proposals. A partnership between West Vancouver–based Formline Architecture + Urbanism and Toronto’s KPMB Architects emerged as the winner among a group that also included, among others, Diamond Schmitt, Hariri Pontarini Architects, Patkau Architects, hcma, and 5468796. The museum, first established in 1931, has been situated within a historic former provincial courthouse at Robson Square since the early 1980s. Arthur Erickson was responsible for converting the sprawling space into an art museum.

Now that the choice of Formline and KPMB has been approved by the Gallery’s Board of Trustees, a new conceptual design will be produced next year, “one shaped by listening, dialogue, and the perspectives of the communities the Gallery serves,” a statement reads.

“The selection of Formline + KPMB to envision the new Gallery is a bold and topical statement supporting Canadian innovation and excellence,” says Jon Stovell, chair of the Gallery Association Board. “KPMB Architects brings a proven track record for creating elegant, world-class museums that center art and community, while Formline Architecture + Urbanism leads with an Indigenous design vision that is both contemporary and deeply rooted in tradition.”

Both KPMB founding partner Bruce Kuwabara and Alfred Waugh, Formline’s founder and principal, have familial ties to British Columbia. Recent KPMB projects to be published by RECORD include the Allied Music Centre in Toronto; The Leaf, a horticultural center in Winnipeg; and an expansion of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in New Brunswick. Notable projects by Formline include the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia and the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, B.C.

News of the firms’ selection marks a major milestone in a fresh start of sorts for the planned building, which the Gallery’s interim co-CEOs Sirish Rao and Eva Respini, describe as the “largest cultural infrastructure project in Vancouver in over 30 years.” More than a decade ago, Herzog & de Meuron was awarded the commission in what would have been the Swiss firm’s first built project in Canada. However, in late 2024, with construction already underway after breaking ground in September 2023, the Gallery nixed Herzog & de Meuron’s winning design due to concerns over swelling costs, leading the firm and the museum to officially sever ties.

Proposed budget information and a construction timeline for the Gallery’s second go at designing and building a new home have not been disclosed.

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KEYWORDS: British Columbia Vancouver

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Matt Hickman is senior news/digital editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Senior Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper and has over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and editor specializing in historic preservation, public space, and the intersection of the natural world and built environment. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Matt holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School.