Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology Gets Major Seismic Upgrades to Protect Against Earthquakes

Arthur Erickson's Museum of Anthropology has been installed with an upgrade—seismic safety.

Originally constructed in 1976, the museum's Great Hall was identified as a major seismic risk following new studies on the Cascadia subduction zone, a fault line capable of producing powerful earthquakes, per Arch Paper.

This prompted a $200 million investment by the Britsh Columbia University in seismic upgrades across its campus, with a focus on the museum's vulnerable structure.

Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology Seismic Upgrade

The restoration project, led by architect Nick Milkovich, involved extensive modifications to the museum's original design. "If we changed any of the dimensions, like the column thicknesses, we would have destroyed [the museum's] initial conception," Milkovich explained.

To keep the Museum of Anthropology's original look while making it safer during earthquakes, the team added a base-isolation system. This involved creating a 10-foot space under the building to install rubber bearings that absorb earthquake shocks.

According to UBC itself, this system allows the building to move slightly during an earthquake, reducing the impact and preventing damage while preserving its design.

The renovation also included replacing the Great Hall's iconic glass wall. The original tempered glass was swapped for laminated panes, which are thicker and offer greater safety.

Along with replacing the glass wall, the renovation also fixed problems like leaky skylights by swapping out the old Plexiglas with new, waterproof, double-glazed skylights, which stopped the need for buckets to catch rainwater inside.

Overall, the seismic and Great Hall upgrade kept the Museum of Anthropology's original design intact while adding modern features to meet today's safety standards.