In his introduction to the new Audain Art Museum in Whistler, British Columbia, architect John Patkau described the project as “a simple building, which to me is a desirable thing.” John, Patricia Patkau and project architect David Shone designed the building in order to create “a quiet space where the art is allowed to shine” on a site just off of Whistler Village, near ski shops and cafés that welcome some 2.7 million visitors each year.
Now open to the public, the addition of a major cultural destination in Whistler has been attracting attention across a region that has long been associated with sports and thrill-seeking activities. Like a soft-spoken Guggenheim Bilbao, the arrival of developer Michael Audain and wife Yoshiko Karasawa’s art collection — including works by British Columbia artists Stan Douglas and Jack Shadbolt — and the commissioned Patkau building have sparked discussions about not only the project, but also what it means for Whistler, more broadly.
Rendering of the Audain Art Museum by Patkau Architects, Whistler, Canada
The building itself is understated in its use of local materials, consistent with its landscape. The exterior is a dark metal, while the interior is a light hemlock wood that bridges indoors and out. John Patkau describes the building’s configuration as “very much derived from the site itself,” but this desire had to be balanced with the conflicting demands of housing such an important collection of art.
The Patkaus and Shone knew early on the limitations that they would be designing for: most of the artwork cannot come in contact with any natural light. To juxtapose the requirement that most of the gallery be protected from its context, they designed an interior walkway stretching the length of the permanent gallery, separated from the adjacent forest only by a wall of glass. Patricia Patkau emphasizes that this should act as “a relief from that extreme enclosure, allowing people to get back in touch with where they are and with nature.”
Rendering of the light hemlock wood interior
Visitors arrive at the building’s porch from a pedestrian link to Whistler Village. The Patkaus see the porch as an “organizing node” acting as an introduction to the space as well as offering a choice of whether to enter the galleries or continue through to the meadow below or to the neighboring creek. Beginning with this choice, the design of the museum allows the visitor to organically move through the space: the lobby decorated with wooden James Hart masks moves through to Emily Carr and EJ Hughes rooms, which move into more contemporary work by First Nations artists and Vancouver photographers. This design allows for widely ranging art pieces that work as a coherent collection.
The west-coast hemlock is a constant throughout the space, and restrained wall text, hidden outlets and track lighting further reiterate the Patkaus’ idea that architecture “should not introduce visual distraction to compete with the art it is meant to display”: Works that take over the space itself are accommodated; ceilings get higher to allow for Brian Jungen’s totems, and a 30-foot atrium space allows light into the temporary gallery that — in the future — will make it possible for visiting exhibitions to vary to a great extent (the opening exhibit is a collection of Mexican Modernism).
Artworks on display include The Crazy Stair by Emily Carr (left) and The Dance Screen by James Hart
The museum offices are housed in the large pitched roof of the building, designed in order to shed the 40 feet of snow that Whistler expects each winter. This is another example of the Patkaus using the challenges of the site to their advantage and something they have worked with in similar projects — like the residential Hadaway House, also in Whistler — in the past. The challenges did not stop there. The museum also needed to be raised one story off the ground to account for being located on a floodplain.
Audain has described wanting “a natural setting with indigenous landscaping” for the museum, and landscape architect Chris Phillips from PFS Studio is clearly an integral part of the project. Only one tree was removed from the site during construction — working with the existing land was important to everyone involved — and a planned meadow underneath and on the far side of the museum will allow for an even greater connection to its site.
This setting also creates opportunity for programming outdoors as long as “whatever is out there is pretty resilient,” the Patkaus explain. The landscaping will not be fully realized until the season allows for it but will certainly further integrate the existing structure into its surroundings. Bringing to mind Vilhlem Wohlert’s Louisiana Museum outside of Copenhagen — in a more centralized iteration — the building is inserted into the landscape and responds to its demands.
A planned meadow will give the museum an even greater connection to its site.
Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden described the building as “elegant” and has said she hopes to capture 10 percent of annual visitors to Whistler with this new project as well as further cultural endeavors like summer programs with architecture and studio art classes. Acoustic work has been done on the lobby of the museum to allow it to act as a space for events, and temporary programming will be aimed at attracting Whistler’s international audience. As Patricia Patkau describes, Audain was “very adamant the museum rely on the Whistler Village, so it does not have a restaurant or huge public space like many do. It should act as a kind of instigator; throwing its energies beyond itself to the local community.”
Walking through Audain’s permanent collection, chief curator Darrin Martins transitions from contemporary First Nations masks to light boxes from photographers Rodney Graham and Jeff Wall of the same era, illustrating one of the main ambitions of the collection: to link historical and contemporary work from British Columbia. The Patkaus’ interest in extending this connection to that between contemporary Vancouver architecture and Whistler’s unique landscape has led to an organic structure that will age well — an important achievement, as future projects will undoubtedly follow in its footsteps.
The Audain Art Museum Whistler opened to the public March 12th, 2016. All renderings and artwork photographs courtesy the Audain Art Museum