Audain Art Museum

Offering breathtaking works from the province’s First Peoples through to its contemporary masters.

Challenging start, with an award-winning finish.

The building was unique because it is a 56,000-square-foot, two-storey art museum built on the Fitzsimmons Creek food plain.  The building is designed to withstand a 500-year flood of Fitzsimmons Creek by being build 15 feet off the ground.

A significant amount of structural design was required to assure the performance of the exterior steel stud framing to ensure protection from not only flood and seismic events, but the extreme weather conditions that occur at a ski resort.

Project Information:

  • 4350 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, BC
  • Completed: 2015
  • Property Type: Commercial

Project Details:

  • Size: 56,000 Sq-Ft
  • Architect: Patkau Architects
  • Nova Service: Drywall, Steel Framing, Insulation

Best Interior Project Award

The project's main foundation is concrete, and the lower floor is suspended on five concrete piers. All of the work to the exterior and underside of the project had to be performed on scissor and boom lifts. When it rained this was not an easy task. The builder was also required to remove the fewest number of trees possible, so working between the trees and building was often a challenge. In the end NOVA’s work on the Audain Art Museum earned the company the BC Wall and Ceiling Association’s 2016 Best Interior Project award.