Pendulum Gallery is situated in a public right-of-way, occupying the large atrium of a downtown Vancouver office tower. An amenity contribution agreement struck between the City of Vancouver and the developer established that this atrium, containing the building lobby, would remain an accessible, open public resource-one that would be anchored by a small public art gallery. The result is the Pendulum Gallery, which shares its space with and takes its name from the large public artwork Broken Column, (Pendulum) by Alan Storey that was integrated into the construction of the building in 1987.

The gallery director's design brief was as succinct as it was challenging. The re­imagined gallery required presence as a permanent public exhibiting institution, while at the same time having the ability to completely disappear in order to accommodate the occasional large public events that occupy the atrium. Simplicity and cost efficiency were the key operational criteria for the gallery. Our design proposal comprised two components installed in the tall, sky-lit glass atrium shell-a large suspended black steel frame and two thick white walls. The suspended frame implicitly defines the gallery's footprint and supports gallery signage and an array of lighting while the two large white display walls sit on the floor further framing the space and supporting the artworks. At 2.5' by 17' by 9' high, the walls have an apparently grounded mass which belies the fact that they can be easily moved on concealed, rolling, locking casters. This allows each wall to pivot around an anchor point, which facilitates multiple possibilities for layout configuration and spatial organization.

The walls support artworks on all four sides and conceal within their hollow shells all the required gallery infrastructure including: a table, chair, support shelf, tools, equipment, additional free-standing display panels and storage space. The two floor anchor pins that provide seismic restraint can be released to allow the walls to be rolled away completely-emptying the atrium.

In our design process, we became inspired by the Broken Column, (Pendulum) sculpture, a very tall slender rectangular form in perpetual motion that slowly swings from the ceiling structure six stories up. At one end of its pendulum arc it momentarily comes to rest over a tilted plinth, visually completing the form down to the floor before it 'breaks' and swings back in the other direction. Movement became implicated in our design for how the gallery itself would function and support flexibility. Additionally, the enigmatic invisible force that moves and forms attraction between the two parts of Broken Column, (Pendulum) inspired the extensive use of magnets in our design to secure the white demountable steel display panels which clad the two walls and to secure the artworks to the display panels. The magnets allow for ease and simplicity in maintaining the display panels and the endless non-destructive display configurations for hanging the artworks on the panels.

The well attended gallery sits in a socially contingent space with the majority of passersby walking through the space in the morning, at lunch and at the end of the work day. Stopping by briefly to view the artworks before carrying on.

Vancouver, BC