Monte Clark Gallery
Vancouver BC
2012-2013
4338 SF
A new commercial art gallery was carved from the shell of a derelict bulldozer paint shop in the old Finning industrial complex. The design process was more of an archaeological excavation than a traditional renovation, stripping away layers of grime, paint and grease to uncover and showcase the tough bones of the 1963 concrete block building.
Reversing the traditional front-of-house / back-of-house art gallery typology, a massive steel and glass entry opens directly into the art storage space, where the bustle of shipping and receiving is manned by an antique staff desk. From the entry, a glimpse of the current exhibition can be seen through a new floor-to-ceiling cut in the party wall that once separated two adjacent industrial bays.
Hovering above the pitted Finning-yellow stained floor, a simple white drywall liner moves in and out of large, medium and small viewing rooms as one continuous form, highlighting the displayed art in a variety of uniquely proportioned spaces. This white liner provides a stark contrast to the rustic patina of the floor and ceiling, questioning the stereotypically anemic treatment of spaces for art.
At four locations these apparently free-standing white gallery walls were secured in place by hiding supporting steel columns inside their thickly proportioned wall ends, which were then site welded to existing striped steel railroad tracks cast into the original floor. This simple construction detail that prevented massive bulldozers from pulverizing the existing concrete becomes newly useful and didactic, determining where the wall ends could be located, and making their installation almost effortless within a very fast construction schedule.
New plate glass window are custom mounted from the exterior, accentuating the 12" deep concrete block walls from inside, creating the effect that these frameless windows are just "holes" in the wall. This trick elevates the stoic and grizzled character of the concrete block, inspiring a material reverence usually reserved for stone or brick.
A new folded steel stair and mezzanine were inserted into the east bay. The steel is left raw, with welds, warts and stains left exposed. The 1/2” steel plates were too heavy to be lifted by the fabricator’s forklift during assembly, so it was agreed that the sheets should be cut into manageable pieces at the discretion of the maker, and then welded back together. This random pattern is visible in the finished product, turning the stair into a big useful quilt. Similarly, every other construction detail was determined with the tight budget in mind. The end of the handrail at the base of this stair was just shoved into an existing hole in the floor, letting the old building affect the tectonics of the new space.
A reclaimed Douglas Fir floor came from a nearby warehouse that was being demolished, blurring the line between what the is existing and what was added. Below the mezzanine, a colonnade of wooden dowels separate individual works of art from each other, creating a leggy and functional texture where the artworks in storage create their own pulsating installation that changes daily, as the pieces are studied, sold or shipped.
Photo Credit: Sama Jim Canzian