As architect Richard Francis-Jones led a gathering of dozens of patrons, artists and business high-flyers through a multimedia presentation of the grand plans for the Auckland Art Gallery, you could have heard a pin drop.
As Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard had earlier remarked, the vision for the revamp was
breathtaking. The plans, a collaboration by Mr Francis-Jones' firm FJMT and Auckland's Archimedia, will bring Auckland into a culturally confident era where we will no longer have to endure a gallery whose facilities were described by director Chris Saines as Dickensian.
The city will also be able, at last, to display the most comprehensive collection of paintings and sculpture in the country, as well as taking large-scale international exhibitions it has so far had to reject.
Te Papa will no longer be able to claim the title of cultural capital.
The plans will work for many reasons. At the moment, the gallery has its back turned to its most obvious natural resource, Albert Park. The development of an organic series of levels leading up to and into the park will help make the gallery space a more attractive destination.
Opening up the various new levels to natural light is a master stroke. At the moment, the gallery struggles with a claustrophobic ambience because of a lack of windows and low ceilings imposed by fire and temperature control requirements. Improvements to the existing gallery will makeover a tired old lady whose gracious Victorian features need beautifying.
The gallery will also better serve the community for generations to come with flexible exhibition spaces, areas devoted to sculpture, and significant expansions to its research, teaching and library facilities.
As with previous FJMT projects, such as the Sydney Mint restoration, Mr Francis-Jones and his colleagues know how to marry the old with the ultra-contemporary, creating architecture which is a work of art itself. Come 2009, with the revamp complete, the city will have a jewel which will shine internationally. All we need now is the cash.
