Gehry says Toronto missed its chance with architecture
Star architect Frank Gehry says Toronto can't transform itself into an architectural hot spot with just a few high profile building projects.
Toronto-born Gehry, perhaps best known for Bilbao's undulating titanium clad Guggenheim Museum, is redesigning Toronto's
Art Gallery of Ontario. He was in Toronto Tuesday to unveil a new art exhibit of his work.
But he tore a strip off his hometown's architectural legacy, saying even the current spate of renovation at cultural venues won't change the city's character.
A new opera house is being built in the heart of the financial district, and Daniel Libeskind, who built the haunting Jewish Museum in Berlin, has designed a crystalline addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Several other renovation projects are also under way.
The city missed its chance by building lines of condos along the waterfront, he said, responding to questions from reporters about Toronto architecture.
"It's like every other community. There's very little social planning; it seems to be more a world of opportunism and entertainment. ... It doesn't feel right, but I think I am just fuddy duddy because of my age," said Gehry, who is 77.
The transformation in Bilbao was more than just construction of a few buildings, he said.
"Bilbao ... was an industrial town and they consciously tried to change the character of the town and they succeeded. I was only one part of it," he told Reuters.
"When you come to a city that is established and all, it's hard to say that you are going to have the same kind of impact because there is already a persona in Toronto and it has its own character. So one little remodelling of an old building isn't going to turn the whole community around."
The $195-million remodelling of the Art Gallery of Ontario will increase exhibit space by 40 per cent and transform the building into a showpiece structure with a titanium and glass facade and an asymmetrical baroque staircase.
The staircase, visible from outside, will wind through a glass column toward two new contemporary art exhibition spaces. The project is scheduled for completion in 2008.
Gehry is in Toronto for the opening of an AGO show of his designs, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The architect, who now lives in Los Angeles, also designed the trophy for the World Cup of Hockey.
Gehry grew up just blocks from the AGO and used to play in the park by the building.
"I remember the days when I lived here as a kid; it was easy to get around," he said. "There's a nice feeling about Toronto, but I think it's more a feeling about people than the architecture."