simply Dan
Active Member
Indeed - we saw them working away on Saturday afternoon - perhaps they take their cues from the TTC workers fixing escalators.
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Alexisto008
New Member
First AGO visit.
Final had a chance to visit the AGO today.
First impressions.
-Looks great overall. Love the blue titanium.
-You need the map to navigate your way through some parts of the building.
-Thomson's addition to the collection is outstanding. It could have had it's own building.
-The level of workmanship was very disappointing. Something tells me that the wooden sections of the building are not going to age well.
-All in all it was worth a membership renewal.
I took a few snaps.
Final had a chance to visit the AGO today.
First impressions.
-Looks great overall. Love the blue titanium.
-You need the map to navigate your way through some parts of the building.
-Thomson's addition to the collection is outstanding. It could have had it's own building.
-The level of workmanship was very disappointing. Something tells me that the wooden sections of the building are not going to age well.
-All in all it was worth a membership renewal.
I took a few snaps.
Attachments
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syn
Senior Member
Did you find it easy to take some pictures, or are they still being very strict about that?
Alexisto008
New Member
No problem taking pics of the building, but they stopped me twice when they thought I was photographing the art. Something about copyright. No tripods allowed with authorization.
Alexisto008
New Member
That should read "no tripods allowed without authorization".
SP!RE
°°°°°°
We all have different expectations. Therefore, I'm not arguing you, but must say that I found the workmanship to be of a very high calibre. I couldn't find any faults when I tried.
adma
Superstar
Hasn't Urban Shocker had issues with the wood veneer, too?
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Globe:
Moisture plagues 'impermeable' gallery
Buckets line AGO's signature Douglas fir staircase, while condensation blurs view from windows
JAMES BRADSHAW
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 3, 2009 at 5:05 PM EST
The new Frank Gehry-designed Art Gallery of Ontario, designed as an impregnable fortress against the harsh Canadian weather, is already showing cracks in its armour. Recent visitors to the newly reopened and much celebrated Toronto gallery have been shocked to find condensation fogging up and streaming down many of its outer windows, while buckets dot its famed Douglas fir central staircase, catching errant drips.
The leaks and condensation problems at the AGO have dredged up memories of a negligence lawsuit that ensnared its architect, Frank Gehry, in late 2007 after another of his designs, at MIT, became cracked, leaky and mouldy. When word of the dispute reached AGO director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum that November, he said he was confident the newly renovated Gallery would be “impermeable†and ready for the challenging weather of downtown Toronto.
Mike Mahoney, the senior project manager for the AGO's redesign, said the cause of the water penetrating are a half-dozen faulty panes of glass in the sweeping windows of the Galleria Italia and insufficient airflow and heating in the staircases, and that there is no cause for concern. He added these problems are in part the natural “settling†process of all buildings in their first year.
“We're all feeling the effects of this winter. It's been a brutally cold winter, so it's not at all surprising, and [the building has] performed remarkably well,†Mahoney said.
The moisture is most obvious in the AGO's two feature staircases, the central one and the spiral staircase on the south wall, and visitors should get accustomed to the dampness, as Mahoney said it can't be fixed until spring because of engineering challenges.
On Tuesday, a reporter found three buckets catching water on the central stairway that wriggles its way from the second floor of Walker Court up to the fifth-floor contemporary gallery. One bucket was three quarters full and catching a steady drip. The winding flat banisters were occasionally draped with small towels absorbing drips, and in two places, a small amount of water was pooling on the banisters unattended. A series of seven portable fans were connected by extension cord and strategically placed to try to dissipate some of the condensation, but appeared to be having little effect. And duct tape can be found partially covering the vents below the windows in an attempt to increase the force of the air flowing up from them.
In recent days, the windows of the gallery's two staircases have been so fogged by condensation that they gave only a hazy, impressionistic view of the city outside, and visitors could be seen wiping them with their sleeves to see out.
Mahoney said the condensation comes in part from six to eight panes of glass in the Galleria Italia that were defective when the manufacturer sent them. The glass is intended to have an insulating effect, but on the defective pieces the outer layer has collapsed inward, making it act like a single sheet of glass on which condensation spots form in cold weather. The panes can't be replaced until spring, he said, but he is confident that part of the problem will then be solved.
As for the two staircases, he said his team has to find a way to divert extra airflow to them and increase the heat pumped into them. While the water in the stairs doesn't immediately threaten any art, both open directly into contemporary galleries. Still, Mahoney said the temperature and humidity in the building are appropriate, and that they are monitoring the issue.
Mahoney played down the alarm some have felt at stumbling across buckets, towels and duct tape in the city's primary artistic gem, saying such “rebalancing†is routine.
“There's nothing surprising, in my experience, and we haven't had any big problems. It's little things and they're soluble. We know what the problem is and we know the steps to move forward to remedy them.â€
(Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum also had to deal with leaks when it opened the new Michael Lee-Chin Crystal in June, 2007, but effected repairs two months later and declared the site watertight. And the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa has undertaken a lengthy process to close up a number of leaks in its glass canopy.)
Meanwhile, Gehry has been struggling with more substantial and different problems on other projects. The number of staff at Gehry Partners, which has offices in Paris, Hong Kong and New York, and headquarters in Los Angeles, has been halved over the last year, and two big projects – on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, and in Brooklyn – have been put on hold as the economy spirals downwards.
His long-standing plans to build a new home for himself in Venice, Calif., have also come to a standstill. “I've had a disappointing year, couple of years, with Grand Avenue and Brooklyn,†Gehry told the Los Angeles Times last week, shortly before his 80th birthday.
A bright spot for Gehry is Abu Dhabi, where he is repeating the collaboration that led to one of his most celebrated buildings, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. “I was reluctant at first to do it,†Gehry said. “I thought: ‘I don't want to go there now. It's too far; it's a new culture: I'm too old to get into it.' And [Guggenheim director Thomas] Krens prevailed and got me to go. And you know, if I hadn't taken that job, the office would be a lot smaller today. It may very well help me get through this downturn.â€
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090303.wago0304/BNStory/Entertainment/home
AoD
Moisture plagues 'impermeable' gallery
Buckets line AGO's signature Douglas fir staircase, while condensation blurs view from windows
JAMES BRADSHAW
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 3, 2009 at 5:05 PM EST
The new Frank Gehry-designed Art Gallery of Ontario, designed as an impregnable fortress against the harsh Canadian weather, is already showing cracks in its armour. Recent visitors to the newly reopened and much celebrated Toronto gallery have been shocked to find condensation fogging up and streaming down many of its outer windows, while buckets dot its famed Douglas fir central staircase, catching errant drips.
The leaks and condensation problems at the AGO have dredged up memories of a negligence lawsuit that ensnared its architect, Frank Gehry, in late 2007 after another of his designs, at MIT, became cracked, leaky and mouldy. When word of the dispute reached AGO director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum that November, he said he was confident the newly renovated Gallery would be “impermeable†and ready for the challenging weather of downtown Toronto.
Mike Mahoney, the senior project manager for the AGO's redesign, said the cause of the water penetrating are a half-dozen faulty panes of glass in the sweeping windows of the Galleria Italia and insufficient airflow and heating in the staircases, and that there is no cause for concern. He added these problems are in part the natural “settling†process of all buildings in their first year.
“We're all feeling the effects of this winter. It's been a brutally cold winter, so it's not at all surprising, and [the building has] performed remarkably well,†Mahoney said.
The moisture is most obvious in the AGO's two feature staircases, the central one and the spiral staircase on the south wall, and visitors should get accustomed to the dampness, as Mahoney said it can't be fixed until spring because of engineering challenges.
On Tuesday, a reporter found three buckets catching water on the central stairway that wriggles its way from the second floor of Walker Court up to the fifth-floor contemporary gallery. One bucket was three quarters full and catching a steady drip. The winding flat banisters were occasionally draped with small towels absorbing drips, and in two places, a small amount of water was pooling on the banisters unattended. A series of seven portable fans were connected by extension cord and strategically placed to try to dissipate some of the condensation, but appeared to be having little effect. And duct tape can be found partially covering the vents below the windows in an attempt to increase the force of the air flowing up from them.
In recent days, the windows of the gallery's two staircases have been so fogged by condensation that they gave only a hazy, impressionistic view of the city outside, and visitors could be seen wiping them with their sleeves to see out.
Mahoney said the condensation comes in part from six to eight panes of glass in the Galleria Italia that were defective when the manufacturer sent them. The glass is intended to have an insulating effect, but on the defective pieces the outer layer has collapsed inward, making it act like a single sheet of glass on which condensation spots form in cold weather. The panes can't be replaced until spring, he said, but he is confident that part of the problem will then be solved.
As for the two staircases, he said his team has to find a way to divert extra airflow to them and increase the heat pumped into them. While the water in the stairs doesn't immediately threaten any art, both open directly into contemporary galleries. Still, Mahoney said the temperature and humidity in the building are appropriate, and that they are monitoring the issue.
Mahoney played down the alarm some have felt at stumbling across buckets, towels and duct tape in the city's primary artistic gem, saying such “rebalancing†is routine.
“There's nothing surprising, in my experience, and we haven't had any big problems. It's little things and they're soluble. We know what the problem is and we know the steps to move forward to remedy them.â€
(Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum also had to deal with leaks when it opened the new Michael Lee-Chin Crystal in June, 2007, but effected repairs two months later and declared the site watertight. And the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa has undertaken a lengthy process to close up a number of leaks in its glass canopy.)
Meanwhile, Gehry has been struggling with more substantial and different problems on other projects. The number of staff at Gehry Partners, which has offices in Paris, Hong Kong and New York, and headquarters in Los Angeles, has been halved over the last year, and two big projects – on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, and in Brooklyn – have been put on hold as the economy spirals downwards.
His long-standing plans to build a new home for himself in Venice, Calif., have also come to a standstill. “I've had a disappointing year, couple of years, with Grand Avenue and Brooklyn,†Gehry told the Los Angeles Times last week, shortly before his 80th birthday.
A bright spot for Gehry is Abu Dhabi, where he is repeating the collaboration that led to one of his most celebrated buildings, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. “I was reluctant at first to do it,†Gehry said. “I thought: ‘I don't want to go there now. It's too far; it's a new culture: I'm too old to get into it.' And [Guggenheim director Thomas] Krens prevailed and got me to go. And you know, if I hadn't taken that job, the office would be a lot smaller today. It may very well help me get through this downturn.â€
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090303.wago0304/BNStory/Entertainment/home
AoD
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
With the global economy deflating like a punctured balloon, and many cities having completed their expensive Big Hair cultural projects, work for the small group of jetlagged starchitects who design these things is bound to be quiet. I sense a certain fin de siècle air hanging over what they're doing anyway.
Alexisto008
New Member
I only saw one bucket with about a liter of water in it. Plenty of condensation though. See attached pictures.
My comment about poor workmanship was aimed at the way that some of the detailed finishing was handle. The way the paneling meets the concrete floor. The way the walls meet the floor in the contempory gallerys. Overall lack of attention to the small details. But then again, I'm comparing it to the MOMA reno and there was a bit of a difference in budget.
My comment about poor workmanship was aimed at the way that some of the detailed finishing was handle. The way the paneling meets the concrete floor. The way the walls meet the floor in the contempory gallerys. Overall lack of attention to the small details. But then again, I'm comparing it to the MOMA reno and there was a bit of a difference in budget.
Attachments
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
As previously noted, the irregular and sometimes yawning gap where the vertical wood panelling of the Walker Court spiral staircase core rises to meet the wooden cap is every bit as egregious as the much-maligned metal panelling of the ROM's Stair of Wonders.
Wear and tear will show on just about every material of course - the millions of feet tramping the AGO's wooden stairs will certainly wear the treads quicker than the equivalent stone stairs in the ROM's 1934 addition were worn, but these things can be fixed. In a way, they're the badge of honour that every successful cultural building must wear.
Wear and tear will show on just about every material of course - the millions of feet tramping the AGO's wooden stairs will certainly wear the treads quicker than the equivalent stone stairs in the ROM's 1934 addition were worn, but these things can be fixed. In a way, they're the badge of honour that every successful cultural building must wear.
Towered
Senior Member
It's insulting to see someone filthy rich and famous like Gehry pretending like he's just some regular joe, making it almost sound as if he'd be homeless and starving if he hadn't taken on that Abu Dhabi project. Please, what a joke. Someone's a tad delusional.
I got the feeling it it was him feeling badly about having to lay off staff. Nobody wants to gut their office if they aren't forced to.
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ProjectEnd
Superstar
Feeling badly? Why then would Gehry be almost doubling the size of his LA-based practise? His old facilities had 44,000sq/ft while the new complex or 'campus' as he calls it, will feature more than 70,000sq/ft of work space. The "If I hadn't taken that job, the office would be a lot smaller today" comment really emphasizes how troubling a time this must be for the firm.
By the way, there is a more detailed report on Gehry's new offices (with pictures) in the new Record.
How long have the plans been in the works for the LA office expansion? Longer than the economy has been tanking, I'd say. Why is it so hard to believe Gehry would be regretting having to downsize?
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