Vancouver Art Gallery

Stone lions guard the former front entry of this prominent civic landmark. The Neoclassical Revival style, which is here so powerfully expressed, was popular for its associations with the strength of Imperial Rome. British Columbia’s most prominent institutional architect, Francis Mawson Rattenbury, was chosen to design this Court House in 1906; he had previously demonstrated the strengths of his talents in his designs for the Legislative Buildings in Victoria. As part of a land exchange between the Province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver in 1974, the city had acquired a 99-year lease of the imposing, neo-classical courthouse building.

Vancouver-based Arthur Erickson Architects was hired by the City of Vancouver to carry out a feasibility study on the possible uses for the courthouse building, and the firm returned a report recommending the Vancouver Art Gallery relocate to the courthouse. The Gallery agreed to this recommendation and commissioned Erickson’s firm to develop the design for a renovation of the courthouse building. Construction began on the $20 million renovation project in December of 1981. The new Vancouver Art Gallery opened to the public in October 1983 in the retrofitted courthouse building with 41,400 square feet of exhibition space.

In 2018, the plaza on the north side of the gallery was officially renamed šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square, an indigenous name from the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Downriver Hunq’eme’nem (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nation languages. The new name “refers to a place where a cultural gathering occurs such as a wedding, funeral, naming, honouring, or coming of age ceremony.” For more information on the renaming see The Georgia Straight article:
https://www.straight.com/news/1091511/videos-teach-how-pronounce-indigenous-named-plazas-vancouver-art-gallery-and-queen

Source

Vancouver Heritage Inventory Summary Report II 1986, Vancouver Art Gallery Website