RCMP Heritage Centre

In 2004 the Mounted Police Heritage Centre put out a Request for Proposals to develop a new museum, visitor centre and interpretive centre for the RCMP. The result of this $30m joint effort of P3 Architecture, Arthur Erickson Design Consultant, Nick Milkovich Architects and Design + Communications is a new national landmark on the prairie landscape. The new RCMP Heritage Centre is a state-of-the-art facility encompassing 7200 square meters of area. This includes public programming and orientation spaces, gift shop, multi-media theatre, support or back-of-house areas, administration offices, and 1600 square meters of exhibit space.

The design draws upon the prairie landscape for inspiration. The overwhelming sense of horizon, the capacious sky, and the impact of a simple “gesture” have been used as inspiration for the building. The RCMP Heritage Centre represents the past of the RCMP as emerging from the archetypical prairie landscape, through subtle design cues derived from the original forts that once dotted the landscape. It represents the present of the RCMP through the relationship with the site and the creation of an entry sequence through a ceremonial wall that defines the Academy entrance. It represents the future as an iconic, modern, and signature architectural expression of the RCMP.

The building reflects an acute understanding of its prairie and urban environments. The building’s fan shape and theatre pivot point is a reflection of the shift in the north-south city grid and the skewed RCMP Depot grid. The building will also reach out to the adjacent Wascana Creek through the use of an arcing wall acting as an organizing element, entrance point, and gesture to the organic form of the creek.

 

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