Located on a 10-acre site between Wembley and Grand Prairie, this museum pays homage to the long-horned dinosaur that roamed northwestern Alberta millions of years ago. The museum features extensive gallery spaces, two classrooms, a 64-seat theater, research and collection areas, a restaurant and a gift shop on three levels. High windows and a spacious interior with a unique timber truss design create a truly exceptional museum experience.

The 33,000-square-foot building makes extensive use of windows and natural light, but it is the geometry, timber beams and struts that really stand out. The roofline has numerous corners and slopes with only a couple at 90 degrees, while the glulaminated timber framing connection nodes are incredible. The nodes are constructed of wood and connect to seven timber beams on one node.

The team used building information modeling to estimate earthwork, the layout, surveying, concrete foundations, glulaminated timbers and structural steel. The project team also tailored the tender to the building’s design and requested that the formwork, structural steel and glulam members incorporate the use of modeling and collaborate with the designer’s Rhino model to achieve the geometry. Bringing each team’s model into one collaborative model, allowed the teams to check the geometry, connections and transitions and resulted in minimal errors during concrete foundations and slabs, structural steel and glulaminated timber framing construction. It also allowed the team to flag and answer any questions that arose from the amalgamated model before activity started, resulting in continuous work with no downtime spent.