The Governor General award winning Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre is located at the heart of the UBC Campus between the Walter C. Koerner and Irving K. Barber Library. The facility is integrated into a revitalization of the landscape precinct designed by leading planning and landscape firm PFS Studio. The building is highly transparent as requested by the Client to allow the landscape to serve as a relief to the content inside.

Together, the IRSHDC symbolizes an important moment in Canadian History that is not to be forgotten. As a result, symbols and materials were selected to evoke pride of culture. Charred cedar planks double as markers of scarring, contrasting with a visually porous Douglas Fir glulam curtain wall, bringing north light throughout the interior. Rainwater is collected from the centre of a long ‘butterfly’ roof, then descends down along a glass and copper-lined scupper to a natural garden pond.

Copper is a high status material for many Canadian First Nations and also used in prominent Canadian public buildings. The rainwater serves as an analogue for the tears shed in remembering. The main public stair features a garden view on one side while its inside wall is covered in a surface of woven Western Red Cedar strips, an update of local Squamish traditional weaving. The warm presence and focused seriousness of IRSHDC gives it an impact unpredicted by its modest volumes and budget of only $3 million.