© GBCA 2024
Bruce County Museum
In 2002, the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre in Southampton retained GBCA 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 Outcome
The main museum building (the former 1873 schoolhouse) 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 construction. 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.
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.