LIGht at the
museum the new Royal Alberta Museum shines a light on its inner workings By Joseph Caouette
D
esigning a museum is not an easy task. Just ask Donna Clare, who would be the first to admit the difficulty in creating a welcoming space that can also protect a collection of thousands of historic—and, in some cases, priceless—objects. The public loves wide-open spaces, lots of light and plenty of glass. But what do 100-year-old cultural artifacts love? “The conservation practice is to put them in a dark room,” Clare says. You can see how this might be a problem. Clare and her colleagues are not easily discouraged, though. As a principal at DIALOG, she leads a team of about 25—more once the project ramps up—on laying out a new Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) that can serve the needs of both the public and the collection. DIALOG, alongside Lundholm Associates Architects and Ledcor Construction, forms the core of a design-build team that is working to complete the $340-million project by 2016. In a presentation, the design team spells out its goals for the new building: “demystify the museum for the public, 98 | Winter 2012
providing views and access into the working museum,” while also “creating a museum that is a central social setting.” Lofty goals, to be sure, and a stark contrast to the current building, which stands like a stone-faced behemoth—more imposing than inviting. Even the location of the old museum seems to conspire against its role as Alberta’s capital museum. Located just west of Edmonton’s gallery district on 124 Avenue, the current museum site is handsomely appointed—and easily overlooked. The building feels like a wayward straggler from the city’s downtown core, forced to struggle on its own as a destination rather than draw energy (and crowds) from nearby amenities. That will change with the new location, set to take the place of the old downtown post office building at 99 Street and 103A Avenue. The move will place the Royal Alberta Museum a few blocks away from the city centre, and give it a position of pride in the city’s arts district, where it will rub shoulders with other key cultural institutions like the Winspear Centre, the
Citadel Theatre, the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Stanley A. Milner Library. A new vision When asked to distinguish the new building from its predecessor, Clare is quick to cite its openness and accessibility. “We’ve introduced glass,” she says. “A lot of parts of the museum can’t have any glass because daylight is damaging to the artifacts, but the public spaces will have a lot of connection to the site and to the city.” The crucial link between inside and outside will be the building’s lobby—a spacious, glass-enclosed area that reaches 12 metres in height, complete with a large multimedia wall to entice pedestrians into entering and exploring the museum. This public gathering space will look out upon the park area in front of the museum, as well as Sir Winston Churchill Square farther down the road. Fret patterns will be used on the glass as well, offering something more distinctive than a typical curtain wall. Clare says this has the benefit of “allowing views, but