Provincial Government To Spend $789 Million On Royal B.C. Museum Building

The British Columbia government will spend $789 million on a new Royal B.C. Museum building at its current location near the B.C. legislature in Victoria.

The British Columbia government will spend $789 million on a new Royal B.C. Museum building at its current location near the B.C. legislature in Victoria.

The new building will incorporate mass-timber construction and will meet modern safety and accessibility standards.

Earlier this year, the province said the current museum facilities on Bellville Street are nearing the end of their life and fall short of current seismic standards.

In November, the museum announced that it would close its beloved third floor galleries, including Old Town and the First Peoples exhibits, saying it was closing the galleries in support of "decolonization" efforts.

The new museum will be among the first large-scale B.C. government projects to partner with local First Nations in both project development and delivery, including designs that will reflect the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, and members of the Songhees Nation and Esquimalt Nation, the province said.

The $789-million price tag for the new building is in addition to the $200-million archives and research building currently under construction in Colwood, B.C.

The current museum will remain open to the public until Sept. 6, while the Imax theatre and museum gift shop will operate until early 2023.

The new museum is scheduled to open in 2030. The province says the redevelopment project will create 1,950 direct construction jobs and 1,050 associated jobs.