By Trish Keegan

Kamloops Art Gallery disappears behind clumsy new construction

Jun 21, 2018 | 4:34 PM

THE KAMLOOPS ART GALLERY is housed in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District Civic Building with the public library and TNRD offices. When the building opened in August 1998 it had supporters and, not surprisingly, detractors. One detractor likened the building to a shoe factory.

Now, a change to the building is afoot. The TNRD’s “Civic Building Enhancement Fact Sheet/April 2018” asks, “Why a new entrance?” Why, indeed? Why ruin a perfectly good and functional entrance?

The change, though, is more than a new entrance. It is a large blocky addition that buries the Kamloops Art Gallery and effaces the building’s focal design point.

The building, designed by award-winning Vancouver architects Peter Cardew and Nigel Baldwin, is unique and one of only a few aesthetically pleasing buildings in Kamloops. Its colours provide relief from the monotonous beiges and browns so common in our city. Varied building materials offer contrasting textures. Red brick on the north and east faces pays tribute to Kamloops’ building history with that often-used, once locally-made material. A rich mustard colour covers the west face. Unadorned and unapologetic concrete (it is what it is) is inside and out, a favorite material of Cardew’s. There are blue-steel railings, light fixtures, gates and bridges inside, the latter a nod to the train overpass pedestrian bridge downtown. Bright steel-coloured cladding and trim inside and out, warm-toned wood inside, and glass — lots of glass.

Overall building features—slanted walls, peaked and sloped roofs, and the windows surrounding the entrance—are intriguing and invite us inside. There, ceiling skylights pour light into the atrium between the gallery and the library and into upper floor offices.

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For two reasons, the building’s most extraordinary aspect is its entrance at the east end. First, it is designed specifically to provide a visible public presence for the Kamloops Art Gallery. The entrance is deeply notched into the spacious open courtyard with the gallery’s massive windows bracketing one side, the library’s the other, and more windows surrounding and soaring above the entrance doors. Windows, space, openness—welcome!

Some may recall former Kamloops Art Gallery Director Jann Bailey’s favourite slogan, “out of the basement and into the light,” as she worked and advocated tirelessly to build a new public art gallery for Kamloops. The opportunity to collaborate on a much-needed larger downtown library and new TNRD offices offered an ideal solution. The efforts of library, art gallery, city and TNRD staff, along with regional and city politicians and the architects resulted in the realization of this special building for our city. Indeed, the architects designed a marvelous structure to satisfy three tenants and two property owners. Not an easy feat!

The second exceptional aspect of the entrance is the view from outside that juxtaposes external with internal features. This view of railings, stairs, fixtures and bridges either during the day, or lit up with internal lights at night, or silhouetted by moonlight streaming through the skylights is the signature focal design point of the building.

Now, with one big stomp, the “shoe factory” detractor adds a boot department. Shoe-horned into the courtyard, this so-called building enhancement is intended to fill “the space that is currently just an open courtyard,” (italics mine) according to the fact sheet preamble. Perhaps the decision makers have a fear of open spaces. Perhaps they see an empty space as wasteful and one that must be filled.

On the contrary, the spacious courtyard offers a respite from the busyness of the streets. It invites one to enter and explore, to walk a little further and take a look through the gallery windows at the artwork on display, or, if the curtains are closed, read the information on the windows about current exhibitions. Turn the corner to see the building entrance doors and look into the library windows at the welcoming space inside.

The fill-in, according to the fact sheet, will “create a large foyer for hosting events” (although none of the tenants are in the business of hosting events, other than occasional special ones of their own). The addition is supposed to provide a “more visible entrance facing Victoria Street” (as if the massive concrete block facing Victoria Street and identifying the building’s tenants isn’t enough) and, most tellingly, “improve the safety of the entrance area.”

The latter is likely the key motivator for the addition. Neither the TNRD nor the city has been able to successfully address the problem of unwanted and bothersome activities in the courtyard. For want of a solution to deal with unruly people and disturbing activities, the Gallery’s visibility—colourful, entertaining, intriguing, inviting—is sacrificed.

The addition, though, is not a solution. There will be lots of courtyard space in front of the addition and the library’s new coffee shop for the people who cause “safety” concerns to hang out.

Maybe a committee of building tenants and community members could spend the $866,000 earmarked for this unsightly addition on a better solution to the “people” problem. In fact, city staff and urban planners have a great idea that is noted in the City’s new Downtown Plan.

TNRD directors and city council unilaterally decided to build this addition: no public consultation, no public open house, no public announcement in a timely fashion to allow public comment, and, it seems, no aesthetic sensibilities, or care for the original purposes of the open courtyard. The building’s original architects were not made aware of the proposed plans for the addition. They were not consulted —a usual professional courtesy — regarding original client aspirations and solutions, in order to ensure the addition designers and decision-makers were fully informed before proceeding with design changes.

The artist’s rendering of the “boot department” addition depicts huge, clumsy changes. The clean lines and purposeful intent of the courtyard’s south and west faces are gone. The view of the building’s signature external-to-internal features is gone. The blocky add-on obliterates the gallery’s windows, its openness, its presence. And the Gallery disappears…