The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has recently completed a major renovation project featuring a new South entrance with a Boon Edam manually revolving door called the BoonAssist TQ.

Located in Toronto, the AGO is one of the largest art museums in North America. The AGO’s collection of close to 95,000 works ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to European masterpieces. The AGO has been undergoing improvements and renovations for a number of years and the most recent project was an ambitious one. In a joint effort with the City of Toronto and the local community, the AGO worked to revitalize Grange Park, a 4.5 acre green space located behind the Gallery. Where there was only an emergency exit into the park before, the AGO and its architect, Harari Pontarini, devised a plan to tear out the existing interior stairwell and room and the double doors to create a new space with a 6 ½ foot diameter, 4-wing BoonAssist TQ revolving door that opens the Gallery to the park.

“We definitely had some space constraints in creating this new entrance,” explained Warren Wilson, manager of facilities services. “There was no room for a vestibule, so we decided on a revolving door configuration, and the Boon Edam entrance was recommended by our architects.”

Boon Edam’s BoonAssist TQ is a manual revolving door that has three distinct features: a “push and go” power assist drive that reduces user effort by up to 50 percent; automatic positioning of the door wings at the end posts upon completion of rotation; and speed control that prevents rotation faster than 12 rpm to help ensure safe operation. 

Wilson explained that the park is one of the few green spaces surrounding the AGO and space is at a premium. “We’re very conscious of our effect on the neighborhood and the fact that we could locate the entire door inside the building with its opening attached to the exterior wall minimized the impact on the surrounding area. I also really like the ‘smart’ feature of the door — after use it positions itself to close the opening to the outside automatically.”