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Design/build applications open for Royal B.C. Museum’s new Colwood facility

More room needed to safely store and display valuable artifacts, funding in place for second site
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The Royal B.C. Museum will move some of its archival records and objects into a new building in Colwood, with completion expected by 2025. (Courtesy of the Royal B.C. Museum)

With $224 million in provincial funding designated for a new facility, qualified candidates are being asked to apply to design and build the Royal BC Museum’s new collections and research facility in Colwood.

The new facility will be built on an eight-acre property as part of the Royal Bay development. Expansion is planned because the Royal B.C. Museum needs more room to safely store its many valuable objects and archival records.

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The new facility will use environmental controls to preserve and protect the collections and as a result, more of the museum’s collections will become accessible to the public.

The competitive process asks companies to detail their qualifications for constructing projects of this magnitude.

BC Statistics’ Construction Employment Estimates calculator expects the project to create approximately 950 jobs for carpenters, construction workers, engineers and suppliers. The proposal also supports training and jobs for local First Nations.

The company to lead the project will be announced in spring 2022 and the facility is projected to open its doors to the public in 2025. The design/build application deadline is Sept. 8.


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