WINNER OF A 2019 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT
On the upper floor, a generously sized hall accommodates large gathering.
Until the 1970s, Thunder Bay?s port was a key node between the Prairie railways and Great Lakes freight routes across Canada. A former shipyard, Prince Arthur?s Landing is the new home for an art gallery.
The site, say the architects, is ?beautiful but wounded.? It looks across the water at the majestic Sleeping Giant geological formation, identified in an Ojibway legend as the body of the trickster Nanabijou. But the shoreline suffers from soil contamination and is estranged from the daily lives of Thunder Bay?s residents. Can a gallery?equal parts museum, community centre and social hub?begin to heal these wounds" The art gallery curves around the revitalized lakefront.
By mandate, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery maintains a particular focus on contemporary artwork by Canadian Aboriginal and Northwestern Ontario artists. So before embarking on schematic design, the architects organized a consultation workshop with stakeholders from local Indigenous communities, including Elders and artists. 
?The Gallery is a ?Story House,?? said one workshop participant. ?This is what art does: its power is to tell stories.? One story in particular came to the foreground: a sacred Ojibway story in which the Earth is reborn after a flood, upon the back of a turtle?s shell. The Turtle Narrative, as interpreted by Ryan Gorrie, the team?s Indigenous Design Advisor, ...