Famed Vancouver anthropology museum begins $47 million expansion

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – A $47.3 million addition that will add more than 50 percent to the exhibit space has been announced at the Museum of Anthropology, which featuring one of the world's largest collections of totem poles.

Work on the 48,800-square-foot "Renewal Project" at the museum on the University of British Columbia campus was set to begin Tuesday and should be completed by 2009, university President Martha C. Piper and museum Director Anthony Shelton said in a news conference Monday.

The two-story addition is being built on open land between the southern face of the existing 79,900-square-foot structure and a parking lot. The Canadian and provincial governments provided $15.6 million each and the rest of the money was raised by the university.

The museum commands a sweeping view of the water and mountains and contains 535,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects, many from the northwest coast of British Columbia but others from elsewhere in the Americas and from Asia, Africa and Europe.

It is the largest teaching museum in Canada.

The expansion includes a redesigned research center and the Reciprocal Research Network, a digital link with aboriginal groups and other northwest coast collections around the world.

Joining in development of the network are the Musqueam Indian Band in Vancouver, Sto:lo Nation in the Fraser River valley to the east and the U'mista Cultural Society in Alert Bay near the north end of Vancouver Island.