By Marc Lostracco

It’s not often that Torontoist gets to don a hard hat and steel-toed boots for an article, but when the AGO announced that the final girder of their new transformation was being hoisted into place today, we had to go see how that $254 million smackers were being put to use.

It’s been said that Gehry’s renovation is simply a mediocre facelift, but make no mistake: this is a huge project. Scheduled for completion in mid-2008, the AGO is adding nearly 200,000 square feet of new and renovated space, claiming a 47% increase in exhibition space. Arriving on site for the first public glimpse from inside, it was clear how a vast amount of natural light will play over the galleries and corridors, as well as allowing an impressive view of the city skyline.
“[Gehry's] vision was to create light within the building to give people energy and give them a journey that was truly joyful,” says AGO Director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum. “Light was very important from the very beginning of our discussions.”
This morning, a 700-pound steel beam was lifted 150 feet and secured to the steel skeleton in a ceremony known as the “topping-off.”
For new construction, the final topping-off is a centuries-old milestone event signifying the completion of the building’s highest and final structural element. The beam is signed by the construction crew, staff and dignitaries, then raised by crane and welded into place, adorned with a small evergreen tree. Though steel-frame construction hasn’t been around as long, topping-off celebrations have been traced back to Scandinavia around 700 A.D.
Today’s ceremony saw the final beam placed into what will become the AGO’s Centre for Contemporary Art: a glass and titanium wing overlooking the OCAD building and Grange Park. From the highest floor, I was able to look down from the northern elevation into historic Walker Court, which will eventually feature Frank Gehry’s signature curlicue “ribbon staircase.” The southern wall boasts an urban panorama looking toward the CN Tower.
Teitelbaum is clearly proud to see the structure come together. “The inside spaces are going to be truly magical. One of the great things about being here is that you can get a sense of the openness and the scale and the glory of the space.
“What we’re doing is very important for the people of Toronto and the people of Canada. We’re re-thinking a public institution and the experiences people can have here.”
Toronto-born Gehry claims that he first experienced art at the AGO and that he played in Grange Park. Architecture buffs had wondered for years why Toronto lacked an acclaimed Gehry structure. When the plans for Gehry’s “transformation” were unveiled in 2004, the public expected one of his typically audacious crumpled-paper designs like Seattle’s Experience Music Project or his flagship Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Instead, many found it simply to be an unnecessary reskinning of the current museum, expensively renovated in 1993.
Most incensed was Joey Tanenbaum, who along with his wife Toby had donated more than $90 million to the AGO and immediately resigned from the AGO’s Board of Directors. Gehry’s plans eliminated some of the existing spaces from the 1993 renovation, including the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Atrium, the Max and Anne Tanenbaum Gallery of 20th-Century Art and the Tanenbaum Centre of European Art.
The gallery worked to placate Tanenbaum with some design revisions and pleaded the case for change. Tanenbaum soon announced that he would rejoin the Board and was now confident that Transformation AGO would be properly respectful of its previous donors.
In fact, some of the AGO’s best press has originated from its philanthropic patrons. Billionaire collector Kenneth Thomson donated more than 2000 crucial works, undoubtedly part of the impetus behind expansion. The AGO was also gifted with a significant 20th-century photography collection as well as new collections of Oceanic and African art, and has greatly benefited from other recent endowments.
Though the architectural models and renderings can look underwhelming to some, Transformation AGO is more considerable than it looks at ground-level. Today’s topping-off event not only celebrated a benchmark of construction, but will also kick-off a period of real visible change to the gallery’s exterior. The AGO is anxious to finish what they hope will be an internationally-lauded metamorphosis. Said Teitelbaum today, “We’re starting to dream about it, and the dreams are getting more and more vivid.”
More photos from the construction site can be seen here.