The Vancouver Art Galley held a special Ground Awakening Ceremony to mark the start of site remediation and construction for its new home in downtown Vancouver.

Completion of the building, located at 181 West Georgia Street, is estimated to be in 2028.

To date, the gallery has raised more than $340 million of its $400 million fundraising target (85 per-cent), with multi-level support from private and corporate donations as well as funding from the federal and B.C. provincial governments and City of Vancouver.

As the project moves into its final fundraising push, the Vancouver Art Gallery has launched a new campaign to engage wider communities, entitled The Build Up. The campaign represents the next chapter in the years-long journey toward the building of a state-of-the-art cultural hub.

The new, purpose-built Gallery will include dedicated space for the Institute of Asian Art, a multi-purpose Indigenous Community House, a state-of-the-art theatre, public outdoor spaces and dedicated artist studios. In addition, the new building will double the gallery’s current exhibition space, enabling a wider breadth of works from its permanent collection to be presented, along with an even greater variety of Indigenous, Asian and international artists as well as iconic Canadian artists such as Emily Carr.

Designed by renowned Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, with executive architect Perkins + Will and in close collaboration with four local Indigenous artists, the new building will be an iconic addition to the city’s skyline, honouring a Coast Salish worldview in the very fabric of the exterior of the building, represented by traditional weaving techniques that will form part of the facade.

Mass timber will be featured as part of the construction to reduce the building’s carbon footprint. The new gallery will be the first Passive House art gallery in North America and will be the most environmentally sustainable art museum in Canada.