Aberdeen City Council (ACC) has appointed Glasgow-based Gareth Hoskins Architects (GHA) to draw up plans for a major revamp of Aberdeen Art Gallery ahead of the venue's 125th anniversary in 2010.

GHA will now create a design study for the scheme, which will be financed by the Marguerite McBey Trust - set up in 2001 to distribute a bequest left to help fund a range of projects promoting contemporary art. ACC hopes that the refurbishment of the gallery - which is expected to cost around £20m - will modernise the venue and provide new education and research space, as well as helping to increase the number of visitors.

Martin Greig, ACC's vice convener of the education, culture and sport committee, said: "Artistic enjoyment is not an optional extra. The state of the art gallery is vital for the well being of the city and reflects the kind of life we want for the city and the standards by which we want to be judged by visitors." GHA's Gareth Hoskins added: "This project presents us with a real opportunity to rethink how people access and experience the wonderful internal spaces of the gallery and how these can be reconfigured and extended to open up the collections to a wider audience and reinforce the gallery's public presence as a destination within the city."