The Globe and Mail: How Canadian museums are tackling their carbon footprint
For more information, please contact:
Andrea Chin, Communications Director
Email: [email protected]
Michael Leckman, Principal
Email: [email protected]
The Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is featured in an article by Lana Hall for The Globe and Mail.
Led by the project team of Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects and Two Row Architect, the new wing is highlighted alongside the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, demonstrating how Canadian museums and galleries are addressing their carbon footprint while fulfilling their cultural mandates.
Building the new wing from scratch is allowing the team to design in ambitious sustainable solutions, with the expansion achieving CaGBC Zero Carbon Building Design certification as one of the first cultural institutions of its size to do so.
Diamond Schmitt Principal Michael Leckman told The Globe and Mail that the project team designed the expansion with a compact form and high levels of wall and roof insulation, reducing the need for artificial heating and cooling. An all-electric building also allows for more efficient energy recovery, easing the strain on heating and cooling systems—particularly important given that, unlike an office, an art gallery operates continuously overnight. As Leckman put it, the design makes the most of exhaust air and air-source heat pumps, "creating a very warm winter coat through which very little energy is escaping."
The gallery builds on a longer sustainability history at the AGO, which was one of the first institutions worldwide to adopt the Bizot Green Protocol back in 2014. Since then, the AGO has widened the temperature and humidity ranges in its existing exhibition spaces, cutting electrical and natural gas use, while also upgrading windows, water fixtures, and waste practices.
Hall's piece also looks at how institutions nationwide are rethinking operations for a changing climate—from virtual installation support to the steeper challenges smaller institutions face with tighter budgets and less control over their buildings.
Read the full feature in The Globe and Mail.