The new AGO is just days away from its official opening and already critics are lining up to sing its praises. In an article in today's Globe and Mail, Lisa Richon has this to say about Frank Gehry's new design:

This is not a stylistic flash in the pan by another architect in designer glasses. Thankfully, for Toronto and the rest of Canada, Gehry's transformation of the AGO is inspired not by personal ego but by allowing for a journey that goes deep into art and the city.

Hmmm...who might this other artist in designer glasses be that she is referring to? Oh, right, that would be Daniel Libeskind of the much vilified Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

So, I think I know how this is going to play out. Despite the fact Gehry's transformation of the AGO received a mixed response when it was unveiled back in 2004, the Toronto art-critic elite are just desperate to further slam Libeskind and the ROM and will overlook whatever flaws (if any) to praise the new AGO as everything the ROM should have been.

For further proof of this theory, there's also the article in today's Toronto section of the National Post in which Robert Fulford slightly more diplomatically observes that Frank Gehry, the architect, has delivered an impressive building. Don't worry, there's more praise. The article is three pages.

For more props (not exactly objective but that's not the point), Shawn Micallef is penning the Art Matters blog over on the AGO web site.

And when will the rest of us be able to chime in? The official FREE opening is this upcoming Friday, November 14th.

Photos by Alfred Ng in the AGO Flickr Pool.