Skip to content

PHOTOS: New look, name and logo for expanded Surrey Museum

'Museum of Surrey' signage shown in artist renderings
38824surreynowMuseumExpansionExteriorCenotaphView
An artist's view of the Surrey Museum expansion from the cenotaph plaza.

* This story has been updated

SURREY — Artist renderings of the expanded Surrey Museum reveal a modern building graced with a new logo and “Museum of Surrey” name.

The $10.3-million expansion project will add 12,000 square feet of space to the existing city-owned facility, which is 24,000 square feet in size and was built in 2005.

Construction will begin in June, and the completion is targeted for September 2018, museum manager Lynn Saffery told the Now on Friday.

“We’re really excited over here, not just about the building but what we’re going to do with the expansion,” Saffery said.

“It will include back-of-house functional needs, like a fabrication workshop, expanded collection storage, some staff and volunteer space,” Saffery added. “All that is what the public doesn’t see, but the fun stuff is really the (Kids Explore Zone) gets expanded, tripled in size, and we’ll also have a 2,500-square-foot feature gallery space – a black box, basically, either for travelling exhibits for rent or ones that we curate ourselves.”

The city will spend close to $10 million on the expansion project; another $377,269 will come from the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The museum’s new logo and name is a result of a “visioning and missioning process,” according to Saffery.

“We really want to stress that we are not just a dynamic and fun museum, but we are a museum that connects the people of Surrey with the stories of Surrey,” he said. “To do that, we had to look at, basically, who are we and what are we here for. We moved from Surrey Museum to Museum of Surrey because Museum of Surrey, connecting people and stories, really explains that we are a reflection of who Surrey is. What that does is instead of talking about heritage only, we can move that into talking about the past, the present and the future – you know, what Surrey is doing, and how innovating is it, and at the same time connecting people with their stories.”

The new building and logo was created by HCMA Architecture + Design, a Vancouver-based firm.

The expansion will include atrium space for cultural celebrations, community gatherings and special-event receptions.

“In that area, at the entrance,” Saffery explained, “people can kind of move in and out of the museum on nice days, and we can have the doors open and people can spend time outside on the grass or maybe spend some time contemplating the cenotaph, and freely move around inside the museum, look at exhibits or spend time with their children in the (Kids Explore Zone).”

On the museum plaza, the Anderson Cabin – built in 1872 and documented as Surrey’s oldest remaining building – will be moved slightly to accommodate the expansion.

In the existing building, the current Kids Gallery will be turned into an indigenous hall, Saffery said.

View of expanded museum from the parking lot.

Street view of the expansion.

Interior view, from the entrance.

Interview view, at "Kids Zone."

 



Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news stories for the Surrey Now-Leader, where I've worked for more than half of my 30-plus years in the newspaper business.
Read more