The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, one of Canada’s biggest museums, could grow even larger. According to the Globe and Mail, the museum is considering a plan to add 55,000 square feet of space that will cost CA$62 million (US$42.3 million) and add a six-story tower that will be host to galleries for modern and contemporary art.
The expansion could prove transformative for the museum, which has in recent years made efforts to beef up its contemporary art offerings. Last year, for example, the museum brought on Xiaoyu Weng, whose exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum in New York had earned acclaim, to lead its modern and contemporary art department. But in terms of square footage, the AGO’s proposed addition will be nearly half as big as a 2008 Frank Gehry–designed expansion at the AGO that added 97,000 square feet of space.
Reached by ARTnews, a spokesperson for the museum said, “This project is still very much in its infancy. We are unable to comment on design, as we have just begun the design development process.”
The Globe and Mail noted that the AGO had added more than 20,000 works to its collection in the last five years alone, and a museum spokesperson told the publication that the expansion was in part one way of accommodating the AGO’s growing holdings. While an architect to oversee the expansion has not yet been named, the Globe and Mail reported that, in its proposal for the addition, the museum was seeking a space with “clean and simple finishes such as polished concrete floors, minimal walls and modestly open ceilings.”