UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum, 2010

• Constructed 2010
• Location
  University of British Columbia
  Vancouver, BC
• Architect Patkau Architects
• Structural Engineer Read Jones Christofferson
• Landscape Architect Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg
• Mechanical Engineering Cobalt Engineering
• Electrical Engineering Robert Freundich & Associates
• Civil Engineering Earth Tech Canada
• Laboratory Maples Argo Architects
• Builder Scott Construction Group
• Use Educational
• Recognition
  Lieutenant Governor's Medal in Architecture (2011)

The flattened image does not properly convey the immensity of this beautiful beast. Suspended within a glass lantern, the skeleton of a Blue Whale serves as the main event in the principal exhibition space of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. Designed by Patkau Architects, the lantern sits along UBC’s Main Mall, on the western flank of a larger facility housing research laboratories, offices, meeting spaces, and an extensive natural history collection. The complex is organized around a central courtyard fostering a sense of academic community and allowing the surrounding environment to form part of the architectural experience.