Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum is a world-class facility in the heart of the Peace Country on a 10 acre complex. Designed by Toronto-based Teeple Architects, Arndt Tkalcic Bengert (ATB) and Structural Engineers Fast & Epp, it has been featured in several architectural/design publications including AZURE, NUVO and MUSE magazines.
The museum features extensive gallery spaces angled onto a unique set of beetle pine timber 7-beam nodal trusses, two classrooms, the 60-seat Aykroyd Family Theater, research and collections areas, the Dine-O-Saur restaurant, the Kaleidosaur gift shop, an outdoor discovery fossil walk and large outdoor playground. Triple glazed zinc roof creates an exceptionally energy-efficient and sustainable building envelope, to handle temperature extremes in the Grande Prairie. The efficiency of this design allows the entire building to be heated and cooled by a displacement ventilation system, located under the concrete floor of the museum.
The design draws on an abstraction of the palaeontological excavation experience with two massive retaining walls of poured concrete and gabions pushing back the earth to reveal the main gallery wall.