CREDIT: Photo/Supplied This artist's rendering shows Randall Stout's winning entry in the design competition for the new Edmonton Art Gallery.

Gift-wrapped in a swirling tangle of stainless steel ribons, Edmonton's new art gallery won't merely be a depository for art work.

It will be a piece of art in itself.

Or at least that's the thinking behind the choice of Los Angeles architect Randall Stout's modernistic design for the new $48 million Art Gallery of Alberta.

Of the four designs in the running, Stout's iinterpretation of the Alberta art scene spoke the loudest, say gallery officials.

"In the final analysis, this design provided a friendly, open design inviting to people on the street level to make them want to come into the gallery," says Allan Scott, chairman of the art gallery board and member of the seven-person that picked the design. "It recognized the whole range of things that we do in the art gallery, from children's education and being a meeting space. This will allow us to show our permanent collection and it will enable us to handle travelling collections.

"On top of that, it has great architectural lines and will be a landmark and a true piece of impact architecture and a landmark for Edmonton."

The winning design was annouced this morning. The provincial government is kicking in $15 million towards its $48 million cost, the federal government has committed $10 million, the city is contributing $6 million and another $9 million is coming from private donations, including $5 million from Edmonton philanthropists John and Barbara Poole. The design was the least conventional of the four under consideration.

Stout says it's designed to reach out to the community.

"It's really an effort to understand the climate, to understand the programming of the museum and express that through architecture," he says. "We have been very sculptural with the public spaces of the building and we have been quite reserved and neutral with the art exibit spaces. We feel this duality represents the appropriate way of combining exuberant space with art space."

He says it "responds well" to the pyramid-shaped designs of City Hall across the street and the rectangular Winspear Centre next door.

"It will certainly be recognized among architects and will be providing facilities that are outstanding," he says.

What others are saying:

"The building will make an artistic statement of who we are." — Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan.

"It will be a work of art in itself and a magnet for creativity." — Alberta Community Development Minister Gary Mar.

"The country will recognize Edmonton as an arts leader." — Coun. Linda Sloan.

What do you think of the new design? Post your comments below.