Land for a new site is not free.
Are you sure?
If Waterfrontoronto wants to give away publicly owned land in its possession, who exactly would stop them?
If the transaction resulted in bold, interesting architecture and a major cultural institution, whose to say it wouldn't pay itself for itself from WT's perspective by inflating the value of neighbouring lands?
The existing site can be almost pure gallery space by adding onto an existing backbone and infrastructure, and the land is free, so the budget goes entirely towards new space.
This implies that this no cost associated with building on an extremely constrained site, with 2 operating entities (OCAD and AGO) on either side who would intend to continuously operate throughout construction.
I can assure that inflates the budget per ft2 vs new build on a clean site.
Also, the new space will require sufficient load-in/out capacity, emergency egress capacity, and may require (we don't know) add-on mechanical capacity.
Honestly the distraction of a new satellite gallery is irrelevant for this thread if for no other reason than ….. that’s not what they’re proposing lol
They aren't proposing anything seriously, they first have to hire a firm to come up with conceptual design, see if it can be done within budget; and then, presumably go fundraise a portion of the cost and go hat-in-hand to the gov't seeking any balance.
*****
None of which is to suggest I oppose this; I don't.
Rather, that it would be nice to fully consider the options, in the open, to deliver the best gallery experience possible, to the greatest number of visitors; and to weigh the trade-offs as a community.
AGO's decision-making, much as with the ROM has seemed to be closed-door, we know what's best; while tending to under-deliver, a less that complete idea, time and again.
