Audain Art Museum – Whistler

Winner of AIA Award and RIBA Award for International Excellence

Audain Art Museum - Whistler

Just visible from Whistler’s “Village Stroll” the entrance portico and bridge draws tourists away from the shops and cafes to the dramatic “skylit porch” where visitors can enter the gallery….There are some delightful spaces within the gallery; the entrance portico and sky loft…”
Per award-winning submission to Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

“The typology of the building is a stepping stone for Canada, a new icon, and a monument for British Columbia.” 
Jury statement for award-winning submission to AIA Award for Architecture

This 56,000-square-foot museum in Whistler, British Columbia, houses the collection of philanthropist Michael Audain, which encompasses the province’s history from the late 18th century to the present. It includes one of the finest collections of precolonial First Nation masks and works by many of Canada’s most important postwar and contemporary artists.

Stella was proud to collaborate with the project team to provide the adjustable Stella stand-offs and doc & pins for the glass entrance portico; their minimal lines blend into the support structure to keep all the attention on the mass timber and award-winning museum.

As you ascend to the museum entrance, there is a sense of procession, and a hush enhanced by the surrounding spruce. Light filtering through shoji-like wooden screens creates a sense of forest canopy, with the gallery as Shinto temple.

A bridge above connects upper-floor gallery and office space, while a triangular overhang of glass and bolted steel angled at 30 degrees south-west offers a perfectly framed mountain view.

Per article in The Architectural Review 

 

Architectural Awards Won:

• 2018 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize Outstanding Project
• 2018 RIBA Award for International Excellence
• 2018 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture
• 2018 AIA Award – Architecture
• 2017 Wood Design Honor Award
• 2017 AIBC Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Medal in Architecture
• 2017 Azure AZ Award
• 2017 Canadian Wood Council Design Award