Royal Alberta Museum

Location: Edmonton, AB
Client: Government of Alberta
Completion: 2018
Size: 37,100 sq m

399,340 sq ft
Sustainability: LEED® Gold certified
Collaborators: Gabriel Mackinnon

Ledcor

Lundholm Associates
DIALOG Services: Architecture

Electrical Engineering

Interior Design

Landscape Architecture

Mechanical Engineering

Planning & Urban Design

Structural Engineering

By capturing and expressing Alberta’s history, landscapes, and promising potential, the Royal Alberta Museum’s new signature building engages the public and changes our perception of the museum. The design concept begins from a deep understanding of the Royal Alberta Museum ("RAM"), the province, and the site. The architecture gives primacy to the stories and the objects of the museum. The engineering responds to this vision, creating a museum that is sustainable, contributes to a vibrant downtown, is well designed, and fully accessible. It is a place to explore and connect—to Alberta, to ideas, to people.

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royal alberta museum design dialog exterior4 — The design has an engaging sense of place and responds to the unique aspects of the province. It is a continuous narrative—a dialogue between inside and out—between the city, the building, and nature.

royal alberta museum design dialog courtyard aerial — Historic streets of the city generate the geometry of the building and inform the design of the building. This is a design that can be nowhere else.

royal alberta museum design dialog lobby4 — The museum experience starts as soon as you arrive. Artifacts are on display in the lobby including an airplane, Albertasaurus, and a mammoth cast.

royal alberta museum design dialog lobby3 — The lobby is RAM’s central wayfinding point. Visitors can experience much of the museum without having to pay admission: the gift shop, café and outdoor patios, and the Manitou Asinîy Gallery.

royal alberta museum design dialog corridor 2 — RAM's core values of equity and transparency are reflected throughout. While the galleries themselves are enclosed to keep the collections safe, the design reveals the life of a museum in clever ways.

royal alberta museum design dialog group arrivals — Alberta’s natural features are illustrated through metaphors and sweeping gestures, connecting visitors to its storied past and remarkably diverse landscape.

royal alberta museum design dialog research lab — The museum is a hive of activity researching, inspecting, restoring, preserving, and displaying, which presents a variety of environmental conditions to design for.

royal alberta museum design dialog corridor — Windows are also used throughout to demystify the inner-workings of the museum, allowing a glimpse into the research, teaching, and movement that goes on behind-the-scenes.

royal alberta museum design dialog fraser courtyard cafe — Fraser Courtyard is the café’s patio and the alignment of the historic 98 Street. It is a representation of Alberta’s natural and human history with Aspens and Alberta-bred and discovered daylilies.

royal alberta museum design dialog entrance — This is designed to be the home for Alberta’s stories for the next 100 years, adaptive to changing needs and the role of the museum into the future.

royal alberta museum design dialog exterior3 — As the evening approaches and the museum's lights come on, the glass façade dissolves, the inside is revealed. It is a display case full of stories to tell, knowledge to share, and all are welcome.

royal alberta museum design dialog exterior2 — The new museum's impressive LEED® Gold certification is a testament to the close collaboration between all design disciplines, the client, and contractors.

Meet The Team

See more team members

From a public perspective, this building is striking. What the public doesn’t necessarily see is its functionality. This building also provides us with the right conditions and tools to conserve the millions of objects held in our care.

Chris Robinson, Executive Director of Royal Alberta Museum

ram design parti dialog — It started with a sketch.

Design Story 01

Human history is brought to life through the placement of the gallery blocks that align with the province’s two main survey grids, with the lobby between. The gallery blocks and outdoor courts reference two lost historic streets that once made up a finer Downtown grid. Playing against these rectilinear volumes are curvilinear gardens and built forms, a sculptural stair and ceiling treatments recalling the rivers, trees, and natural features of Alberta.

royal alberta museum design dialog sections

Design Story 02

The blank canvas in the heart of the city presented a unique opportunity to create a perfectly-suited facility with more space for displays, growing collections, and state of the art research labs. The architecture gives primacy to the stories, the artifacts, and the objects of the museum. The engineering systems respond to and support this vision. RAM is designed for resiliency, reliability, temperature and humidity stability, and low operating costs. All the building systems were thoughtfully integrated into the design.

Design Story 03

A notable structural accomplishment was the spiral cast-in-place concrete feature stair located in the main entrance lobby. The stair is the focal point of the lobby and provides enjoyable access to the second level Natural History Gallery. This massive, swooping staircase spans nearly 18 linear meters from a concrete wall located near the base all the way up to the second floor. The stair’s spiraling architectural form was inspired by water-carved canyons in the Rocky Mountains.

royal alberta museum landscape architecture dialog

Design Story 04

The landscape gestures, both large and small, speak to the region’s past through storytelling and to the ecologies of Alberta. The setting and public realm are integrated and cohesive, an essential part of both the formal programming and the visitor experience. The design amplifies the history of the neighbourhood and the city by reflecting the historic survey grids, recalling lost streets and incorporating memories of past buildings and uses on the site.

Design Story 05

Mosaic artwork by Ernestine Tahedl and the exterior clock that once graced the post office on the site are given new life. The mosaic panels were carefully removed, restored and reincorporated into the façade of the museum, within inches of their original location, to create an engaging screen for the café garden along the 103A Avenue pedestrian promenade.