The Globe and Mail

Don't even ask. In the home of Dofasco and Stelco, the bright gold exterior of the newly rebuilt Art Gallery of Hamilton could be nothing else. "It had to be steel," says architect and Hamilton native Bruce Kuwabara, whose transformation of the AGH opens today in all its alloyed splendour. "This is Steel City." It may glisten like a precious metal, but the corrugated cladding that now gilds the streets of downtown Hamilton is made of tougher stuff, a fitting symbol for the city of white-hot blast furnaces and bloodthirsty football teams. Never mind that the health-care sector dominates the local economy these days, or that the crowds lining up to look at the AGH's surprisingly rich collection have long since abandoned their blue collars. This is still a city where a native son like Mr. Kuwabara can describe the AGH comeback as "the most important cultural event in the life of Hamilton in years, as important as Robert Young purchasing the Tiger-Cats."