Museum of Anthropology – Great Hall – Seismic Upgrade

Seismic upgrade of a Canadian cultural icon

Museum of Anthropology – Great Hall – Seismic Upgrade

Arthur Erickson has created many poignant buildings in Canada, but none capture the Canadian identity as powerfully as the UBC Museum of Anthropology, which sits proudly as an icon of the West Coast spirit, even more so the spirit of Canadian architecture.
Per Canadian Architect 

Originally open in 1976, the Museum of Anthropology has been recognized by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada for its enduring excellence and national significance to Canadian architecture as one of the best works of the 20th century.

The focal point of the Museum is the high ceiling Great Hall housing massive totem poles. Large glass windows, towering up to forty feet in height, provide an unobstructed view and enable the totem poles to be seen in daylight against a natural exterior setting.

The planned intervention of additions and rehabilitation upgrades of the original Museum building must be approached in light of its cultural and recognized architectural significance and an understanding of its conception. The building is a sublime testament to Arthur Erickson’s design philosophy which is founded on a deep understanding of the “function and meaning of architecture as an art of environmental context and of cultural expression, as something having more than sheer mechanistic utility, as something expressive of the human condition and the human spirit.

Per architect Nick Milkovich Architect

 

The project will upgrade the resiliency of the Museum and protect its irreplaceable collection in the event of a major earthquake. When the project is complete the Great Hall will look as its famed Canadian architect, Arthur Erickson, intended in his original plans in the mid-1970s, though now it will incorporate groundbreaking 21st-century technology.

Describing the Seismic Upgrade – Source – Museum of Anthropology at UBC

 

Our work on this project centers around the re-imagined support of those huge glass panels.

The photos shown here are of the Museum of Anthropology prior to the seismic upgrade that we are currently working on.

Key Challenges

• Traditional, ancestral, and unceded land of Musqueam people – a sensitive approach to artifacts and construction process
• Iconic building by architect Arthur Erickson
• Material originally used in 1976 is no longer available today – extruded bronze is one such example of unique material we’ve had to re-source
• Preservation of architectural character and values – we’ve sourced and created a match of aged patina; the material we’re designing with will look consistent to the colour that the original bronze would have matched to today 

Seismic Approach

• Complete rebuild vs. reinforce with new columns and brackets
• Position base isolators under main, suspended floor slab to absorb impact of seismic activity
• When ground shakes during earthquake, isolators will allow building to move (mitigate impact of quake on structure)
• Great Hall detached from rest of museum, rebuilt on new foundations so it can move freely in earthquake

Some of the Architectural Awards that the Original MOA has won include:

• Canada’s Top Tourist Attraction by the Canadian Tourism Commission (1983)
• Governor General Award for Architecture (1989)
• Prix du XXe Siècle Award for enduring excellence in Canadian architecture from Architecture Canada | RAIC, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2011)