Toronto Star

What does Alberta do with all its wealth? Wandering around the capital of the oil-rich province, it's painfully clear it doesn't spend cash on its cities, at least not this one. Though Edmonton shows no obvious signs of disrepair or shabbiness, it isn't a city that has anything special to recommend it, either. One feels one could be anywhere. There's almost nothing here that stands out, that demands our attention, just endless strip malls and lowrise apartment buildings designed, it seems, to be anonymous. Perhaps this is all a result of some inherent sense of modesty, or maybe it's a reflection of a boom-and-bust cycle that makes it hard for residents to have the kind of faith in their city that serious investment requires. Fortunately, there are signs this is starting to change; the most dramatic example is the $88 million remake of the Art Gallery of Alberta, formerly the Edmonton Art Gallery. In 2005, California-based architect Randall Stout won a limited competition to design a new facility, beating out such luminaries as Will Alsop (he of the Ontario College of Art and Design "flying tabletop"), Zaha Hadid and Arthur Erickson of Vancouver.