The spark for this new AGO came from the late Ken Thomson, who donated his collection of nearly 2,000 pieces of art and his magnificent miniature ship collection to the gallery. This collection consists not only of a large Canadian art collection but also such treasures as Peter Paul Rubens' Massacre of the Innocents. In addition, he donated $100 million to kick off the fund-raising. It is also Thomson who engaged Gehry's interest in this project, which now is the architect's first in his city and country of birth.

The warm color of wood, glass and natural light, as well as lush shapes have changed the former building into one that allows easy access to every floor and every gallery. Though almost 50 percent larger than before, it is almost impossible to get lost in the combined structures of old and new spaces. And while there is now a five-storey, tinted titanium and glass south wing added to the old gallery it is so seamlessly integrated into the whole that it appears to have always been there.

Regular visitors to the old AGO will not recognize the place even though they will enter the building from Dundas Street as they always have done. The first thing they will notice is that the entrance has been moved further west. This is where it was prior to a 1993 expansion of the building. By returning to the old location, Gehry created a clear line from the entrance to the old Grange, the AGO's first permanent home. The gift shop, formerly located on the west side of the lobby, has now moved to the east side, as has its classy eatery, called the Frank after Gehry, while a coat check area is on the west side. Stairs are placed on either side of a sensuously curving walkway, called the Serpentine, which allows those who cannot climb stairs to walk to the front-facing reception/ticket desk. A large wooden screen behind the reception separates the entrance from the interior of the building. But once one is beyond that screen there is a clear view through the centrally located Walker Court—the heart of the building since 1925—right to the Grange. What is particularly impressive is that now Walker Court is naturally lit by a glass ceiling, and enhanced by the enthralling, sensuous shape of the spiral wooden staircase that breaks through that ceiling that Gehry has introduced to the center of the building.

For now the intoxicating scent of Douglas fir greets the visitor though in time the wood scent will dissipate. What will not vanish is the feel of the wood. Anyone who loves this material will find a pleasurable tactile sensation when moving the hand across the surface of the Serpentine railing, or the immense beams of the Galleria Italia, of which I will speak more later.

Gehry's vision is visible in every gallery space. He has designed many of the display cases, the benches on which visitors can rest, the hardwood floors in the old as well as the new buildings. Gone is the wall-to-wall carpeting from another era. Only the floors of the two upper storeys of the new five-storey extension lacks wooden floors. There, cement floors have been left bare to harmonize with the latest modern artworks that will be on display. No doubt, it is also more functional for impermanent installation art that for better or worse, is still very much in evidence in the art world. The new building's upper storey is 24 feet high. It is flooded with natural light, but there are also areas within this large expanse that have been divided into smaller rooms with lower ceilings. As in other areas of the gallery, the whole idea of the new AGO is that special spaces are available to suit the art on display. Hence, there is no sameness in the displays. The senses, visual and emotional, can never be bored because each space and each display offers a new challenge to the visitor.

Still speaking of the new building, Gehry has added another spiraling staircase on the exterior of the titanium-clad face, which is known as the Barnacle staircase. A careful look south through the slatted windows of the new building's storeys, offers a glimpse of Lake Ontario through a gap of buildings. Suddenly one becomes very much aware that Toronto not only lies on a huge lake, but that in a not-too-distant past it was a very active port city. Having said this, I now come back to the Galleria Italia, named so because of the large contribution the Italian community made to the AGO's fund-raising. One first has to go outside of the building to Dundas Street to look at the billowing structure of glass and wood one storey above the entrance. Whether intended or not, it evokes the gentle curve of the hull of an ancient ship. And, because of its shape the glass mirrors the wonderful array of Victorian houses across the street, thus melding the AGO into the neighborhood.

Once in the Galleria Italia the senses have no choice but to respond to the huge, curved Douglas fir beams to which the glass facade cleaves as a child to its mother's bosom. Standing in the center of this long sculpture promenade and looking either way, a sense of awe develops at its imaginative scope and its seemingly diminishing height as it fades into the distance. Here, the visitor realizes just how much Gehry made sure that his creative energies harmonized with his old neighborhood, where he had grown up before moving to California.

The new AGO is a fine example of what architecture should be: imaginative, yet fully functional. At no time does one get a sense that Gehry attempted to provoke or to impress with bravado.

Yet, without a doubt, the AGO is now clearly a Gehry building, and in time will probably be seen as one of his most masterly works simply because he so ably married exuberance with simplicity, modernity with Victorian quaintness just across the street, and allowed the seamless interaction between the original building and the new. The AGO's Wow-factor exists not because Gehry overwhelmed with excess, but because he combined elegance with sensuous curves and tactile materials to create a building that exudes warmth and joy.

Modigliani: Beyond the Myth has been moved to Archives