The museum is located on an eleven acre site on the University of British Columbia's campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. The building is perched on the edge of the campus, with stunning views of the Strait of Georgia and the North Shore Mountains. The site was once used as a fortress and the remnants of three concrete gun emplacements still occupy the land. The museum was designed to incorporate these emplacements, which influenced the layout and orientation of the building. The main axis of the museum seems to be aligned with the three gun emplacements- two of them cap the length of the building on either end, and the middle one is incorporated into the body of the museum itself.