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FEBRUA RY 2016 | 53 Audain Art Museum RENDERINGS COURTESY PATKAU ARCHITECTS Audain Art Museum by NATALIE BRUCKNER-MENCHELLI T he town of Whistler in B.C. may be considered a mecca for snow sports enthusiasts and mountain bikers, but what some may not realize is that the world's number one mountain resort is also steeped in arts and culture. So when Canadian home builder, philanthropist and art collector Michael Audain was approached by a friend with the idea of building a museum in Whistler that would house the very best of his B.C. art collection, he was intrigued. "Michael and his wife Yoshi had visited a private art museum in Saint-Paul de Vence in France and fell in love with it. They wanted to set up something like this to ensure their collection would be available for the inspection of the public," says Suzanne Greening, the museum's executive director. Following a meeting with the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden, Michael and Yoshi were shown a few sites and chose the present location – a 1.22-hectare museum site that is part of an 11.9-hectare land parcel on Blackcomb Way. In October 2012, Audain entered into an agreement with the Resort Municipality of Whistler to build a 25,000-square-foot museum to house a portion of his extensive art collection. It was later decided to expand the project to 56,000 square feet to accommodate a boutique art collection of around 200 pieces, ranging from pre European content up to contemporary. "Michael wanted a location that was treed, with easy access and walking distance for people. This site was in a prime location across from the Olympic Plaza and the village," adds Greening. To complete his vision, Audain chose Patkau Architects. "The Museum is within an existing forest of predominantly Englemann and Sitka Spruce trees. Audain was drawn to this site because of its natural forest which he felt was well suited to set the context for his collection," says Chris Phillips from PFS Studio, the landscape architects. PFS worked closely with Patkau Architects to carefully set the building within an existing clearing and to minimize any disturbance to the forest. "The landscape design approach is to protect and renew this indigenous forest as an essential part of visitors' experience," adds Phillips. The design of the museum is shaped by three powerful determinants: "The first determinant is the need to house both the permanent exhibition of Michael Audain's collection and the temporary exhibits. The second determinant is the beautiful but challenging site in Whistler which, although blessed by magnificent evergreen forest vegetation, is located within the floodplain of Fitzsimmons Creek. The third determinant is the enormous snowfall typical of Whistler which averages nearly 15-feet annual accumulated depth," explains David Shone from Patkau Architects. The design responds to these determinants by projecting a volume of sequential public spaces and galleries into an existing linear void within the surrounding forest. The building is elevated one storey above the ground and crowned with a steeply sloped roof, containing administration and back-of-house support functions. "The form and character of the building and interiors is deliberately restrained to provide a quiet, minimal backdrop to the art within and the surrounding natural landscape. The simple form of the exterior is clad in an envelope of dark metal which recedes into the shadows of the surrounding forest. Where this envelope is opened to provide access in the entry porch or view from the glazed walkway to the galleries, the dark metal is overlaid by a luminous wood casing. Public spaces in the interior, which are visible from the exterior, continue this warm luminous materiality," adds Shone. Due to the intricate design of the museum, precision was paramount. Through careful attention to detail and close collaboration with the team, Axiom Builders Inc., the general contractor on the project, had to ensure that every aspect of the build was executed perfectly. "We were faced with the challenge of taking a building structure that was so complex and marrying it with an architecture that was pure in form with very little tolerances built in," says Mike McDonough, VP at Axiom Builders. "We were tasked with constructing an elevated building that had a little over 10 per cent of the footprint touching the ground." The design and site location also proved to be extremely interesting for Equilibrium, the structural consultants. "To allow for periodic floods, the entire building is suspended a full storey high on a series of piers spaced at about 20 metres, resulting in long spans and large cantilevers," explains Eric Karsh from Equilibrium. The building marks the first use of a Canadian-made seismic system called Scorpion Yielding Connectors by CastConnex. "Scorpion Yielding Connectors are fuse elements used within a brace to provide a location for energy from an earthquake to dissipate in a highly ductile way. Scorpions are used in the cross-braces at the piers to provide a very ductile earthquake response," Karsh says. The fabrication and erection of steel was done by George Third & Son (GTS). Rob Third, president of GTS explains that the museum became a test of the Scorpion Yielding Connector system to provide sufficient strength and ductility to achieve the performance required. The Museum incorporates 12 braces with SYCs in all, each with a nominal yield strength of 120 kips. The connectors are specially designed hysteretic devices that can create a non-buckling, axially yielding brace assembly. During an earthquake, they dissipate seismic energy through flexural yielding of specially designed cast steel fingers, while the brace member remains predominantly elastic. Steel was chosen for this structure's long spans and significant open spaces. The steel structure consists of three longitudinal trusses running the length of the building. These steel trusses range from 16 feet to 40 feet in height and are essentially the spine of the building. Transverse pentagonal shaped trusses are supported by only three columns each. The elevated trusses cantilever past the three column clusters by 30 feet. This intricate steel network will meet stringent vibration and serviceability standards required for a Class A Museum. "The significant challenges of this 1,000-ton complex long-span structure required all members of our team to be on their game," explains Third. "Every truss was different and required careful engineering, intricate detailing and massive fabricated steel members, with thoughtful erection sequencing." The complex steel connections required 25,000 field installed bolts. Kerr Wood Leidal (KWL) provided engineering services for flood hazard

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