Rocky Mountain Outlook

The ground hasn't been broken yet, and already the National Mountain Centre has won a significant design award. Announced in the December issue of Canadian Architect magazine, Montreal's Saucier & Perrotte, with Calgary architect Marc Boutin, were among 10 finalists to win the peer award for their National Mountain Centre design. "We're very pleased," said Doug Leonard, project manager and founding director of the NMC. "It's a combination of things. This award is given to architects in relation with architecture. It's a celebration of peers by fellow architects. But what it means to us is that the architects found a way of iterating the meaning of the Mountain Centre to us as a group, and the whole valley, and the whole notion of sharing the mountains with our visitors. After we sat down and talked about what we wanted the centre to be, they went away with something in mind, and we didn't expect it to be as original and unique a design." Inspired by the geological strata of the natural mountain landscape, the NMC building design creates habitable spaces that evoke the physical structure of the mountains, while opening those indoor spaces to dramatic views of the Rocky Mountains outside.