Squamish Adventure Centre

Location

Squamish, BC

Size

536 square metres

Completion

2005

Structural Engineer

Iredale Architecture

Construction Manager

Compass Management

Mechanical, Electrical, Sustainability

MCW Consultants Ltd.

Project Owner

District of Squamish

Project Materials

Solid-sawn heavy timber

Structural Systems

Hybrid / Other

Low rise

Post + beam

Wood craftsmanship and technology converge in this combined visitor centre, sports museum, and economic development office.

  • Showcases how modern designs with complex geometries can be quickly and economically built.
  • The building’s signature curved wing-like roof represents the eagles in the Squamish Valley.
  • Built using 60,000 board feet of Douglas-fir timber from the west coast of British Columbia.

Craftsmanship and technology converge in this combined visitor centre, sports museum, and economic development office. Thirty-five different composite steel-and-timber roof trusses, each with a unique geometry, comprise the curved, butterfly-like roofs that perch lightly on a supporting structure of exposed timber columns, brackets, and beams.

The elliptical plan and expansive glazing ensures the building is highly visible from BC’s Sea-to-Sky Highway. The organic form reflects the local alpine geography, and surely inspires the more than two million visitors who pass by it each year on their way between Vancouver and Whistler. Computer-aided design and manufacturing software technology was critical to the success of the project, with over one thousand uniquely shaped heavy-timber members—few, if any, containing right angles—made from locally grown Douglas-fir harvested from a sustainably managed forest operated by the Squamish Nation.