AGO’s Dani Reiss Modern & Contemporary Gallery
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Owner/Operator: Art Gallery of Ontario
Architects: Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects, and Two Row Architect.
Construction Management: EllisDon
The Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately a million visitors annually. The AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists to European masterpieces. In 2022, the AGO began the design phase of an expansion project launched officially as the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery. The new Gallery addition will increase the museum’s gallery space by 40,000 square feet, with at least 13 new galleries across five new floors – increasing the AGO’s total space available to display art by 30%. The project represents the seventh expansion that the AGO has undertaken since it was founded in 1900.
Construction Vibration Assessment & Monitoring Plan
HGC was contracted to develop a construction vibration assessment and monitoring plan for the expansion project. The expansion is primarily on the east side of the AGO, and construction activities are taking place adjacent to the exiting building, including gallery spaces and art storage areas, but also adjacent to a heritage building and to the existing Ontario College of Art and Design. As such, the vibration assessment and monitoring plan needed to address construction vibration which may impact the AGO buildings and collections, and other nearby buildings and heritage structures.
HGC reviewed the project drawings, including architectural and structural drawings for the site, shoring drawings, geotechnical report(s), and drawings showing the location, extent, and structure of neighboring buildings
HGC also met with project team members to learn about anticipated construction activities, including plans for demolition, compaction, shoring, excavation, construction of foundations, and other relevant activities, together with associated timelines.
The vibration sensitive gallery areas of the AGO near the affected areas were reviewed. Information relating to the types of works that will remain in place during the construction, and any works known to be particularly sensitive to vibration was also collected.
Relavant construction vibration criteria were derived for the project, from various papers and reports dealing with vibration impacting museums and galleries, and on HGC’s own experience during similar vibration assessments at the AGO, along with other journal articles and reports provided by the Gallery. The City of Toronto’s Construction Vibration By-Law (514-2008) was also reviewed.
Two reports were prepared: The first report summarized the review of vibration potentially impacting the artworks. The report highlighted the construction activities most likely to generate vibration in the building, the proximity between these activities and the works, and proposed vibration criteria. The report also recommended vibration monitoring locations, provisional vibration criteria, appropriate types of vibration monitoring instrumentation, and various related procedures for equipment maintenance, alerting, and presentation of vibration data.
Construction Vibration Zone of Influence
The second report included a predicted an offsite construction vibration “zone of influence” as required by the City of Toronto by-law. This report included a list of potentially impacted buildings or structures beyond the AGO property. Criteria were based on the City by-law limits, intended to safeguard against unintentional cosmetic damage to structures. The identified vibration zone of influence extended beyond the legal boundaries of the site and thus under the By-Law a vibration monitoring plan was required to address off-site buildings.
The report described an appropriate vibration monitoring plan for this purpose. The study also addressed the need for pre-construction consultations with adjacent property owners and occupants, and for pre-construction inspections of existing conditions. The report provided a template letter for the Gallery staff to inform neighbors of the upcoming work, containing information required by the By-law to be communicated to neighbors located in the Zone of Influence.
Attended and Automated Construction Vibration Measurements and Monitoring
HGC projected a lengthy review of construction vibration, through attended vibration measurements around the site and automated vibration monitoring at nearby buildings. HGC was also called upon to consult with AGO during the work, and select installation locations for AGO’s own vibration monitoring equipment, to install and periodically relocate the monitors, and to reviewing data from the automated vibration monitors which have been installed in and around the stie.
Vibration consulting services being delivered include:
- Development of a Construction Vibration Assessment and Monitoring Plan
- Review of vibration potentially impacting the artworks
- Select vibration criteria for gallery spaces and other areas in the AGO
- Identification of a construction vibration “zone of influence”
- Attended vibration measurements
- Automated Construction Vibration Monitoring
- Project compliance with Toronto’s Construction Vibration By-Law (514-2008) and Article 5 of Chapter 363 of the Toronto Municipal Code.