Bruce County Museum

In 2002, the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre in Southampton retained GBCA as architect and project manager to design a modern addition to their existing facility, which included several heritage structures. This ambitious project, with a limited budget, involved upgrades to the overall building structure and the construction of a new 15,000 square foot wing (for a total complex of over 43,000 square feet). Upon assembling a team that included engineers, a landscape architect and a museum consultant, GBCA oversaw all aspects of the building design and construction.

The main museum building was built in 1873 as a schoolhouse and, along with a number of other buildings on site, served as the Bruce County Museum from 1955 on. The historic schoolhouse featured prominently in the design considerations for the new addition.

GBCA’s design drew upon the features of the impressive buff brick two-storey structure and enhanced it with contemporary details that were sympathetic in form, mass, scale and material. The new construction includes materials available locally (buff brick and Eramosa stone). And, rather than creating one new building mass that would detract from the existing heritage building, GBCA designed several pavilions evocative of the landscape, agricultural and shipping themes central to the museum’s collection.

GBCA’s new campus design was integrated into the picturesque wooded hillside site adjacent to Fairy Lake, with the guidance of a landscape consultant. The overall site plan focused on a natural stone wall, which slices through the site from sidewalk to lakefront. The wall is, at some points, three-storeys high, at other points at a height suitable for sitting, and at still others, simply part of the floor. The material and configuration of this wall references the nearby escarpment, a crucial geographic landmark of the area.

In conjunction with their team of specialized consultants, GBCA ensured that the fragile artifacts and historic records would be protected by a state of-the-art interior environmental system.

The completed project has complemented an important heritage resource with several new exhibition spaces and a modern archive facility. GBCA’s improvements will allow the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre to provide a wider range of heritage and cultural programs and activities, ensure the appropriate environment for archival preservation, and provide barrier-free access for people with physical disabilities.