Art Gallery of Windsor
Overview
The Art Gallery of Windsor is a landmark in the urban revitalization of the Windsor waterfront.
Details
- Client
- The City of Windsor
- Project
- Art Gallery of Windsor
- Size
- 77,500 sq. ft.
- Scope
- Architecture & Interior Design
- Location
- Windsor, ON, CA
- Year Completed
- 1970
The
Goal
As an iconic new addition to the Windsor waterfront, the purpose-designed art gallery is dedicated to public programs, exhibitions, collections storage, preservation, and care of Canadian art works. The project was conceived as an entirely new facility for the Art Gallery of Windsor, already an esteemed municipal institution and an important venue in Canadian and international art circles. The Gallery saw its beginnings in the middle of the twentieth century in a re-purposed industrial building.
Having outgrown the facility and the conservation capacity of their original home, the City of Windsor asked R&P and partners Moffit Kinoshita Architects to create an entirely new piece of architecture reimagined as a forward-looking Gallery with state-of-the-art capabilities. The project was also seen as a strategic piece of urban architecture to help foster aspects of urban re-development in the Windsor city center.
impressive building…
Art Gallery of Windsor
The
Design
In a joint venture, R&P and Moffat Kinoshita designed the Art Gallery of Windsor with three floors of flexible gallery space, a restaurant, multi-purpose room, retail shop, and public spaces. To maximize display spaces, the building is designed along a central circulation spine and gallery ‘street’, thus using the main circulation route as additional space for installations. Dramatic glass volumes at both ends of the building create views of the city, Dieppe Park and the Detroit River, and also provide spectacular spaces for art and events. A striking mix of stone, glass, and metal create large spaces along the interior and exterior of the building. The visual impression is a balance of openness and fortitude.
The building form was inflected along an axis to create a public park linking the city center to the riverfront. This became a principal feature of the architecture of the building for both front- and back-of-house. The central gallery is expressed on the exterior of the building as a tall and slender glass-sheathed sliver. This central glass volume is used to mark the main public north and south entrances. The central gallery links all public spaces and is connected from floor to floor by two grand public stairs and is flanked by monolithic volumes clad in stone. All gallery areas have a palette of burnished concrete floors, white walls, and are completely void of architectural details, as mandated by the director.
Display and storage criteria for the building were developed according to Class A museum standards for environmental control in order to provide a building performance suitable for international loans of artworks.
both inside and out that
is limitless in its potential.
Art Gallery of Windsor
The
Result
The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), leaders in collections care standards and conservation science for building technology, has cited the Windsor Art Gallery as a prime example of ‘the right way’ to design a building to meet art conservation objectives.
