2011 HERITAGE CONSERVATION
AWARD OF HONOUR

Bill Reid's Haida House

The Museum of Anthropology UBC

Ian Ronalds Architect

JM Engineering
Macdonald & Lawrence Timber Framing Ltd.

Haida House is a permanent exhibit within the grounds of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Used for cultural events, teaching and ceremonies, it was created and built by renowned master carver Bill Reid and his friend Doug Cranmer in the 1950's.  Constructed in the Haida manner and tradition, western red cedar was used for the massive roof posts and purlins, which were covered with split cedar planks laid board-on-board fashion. Two large totem poles were an integral part of the building's structure.

In the half century since Haida House was built, water ingress had caused serious decay of the structural frame and placed the associated carvings at risk.

Given their huge dimensions, procuring materials for repairs was a major challenge. It was only when Macdonald and Lawrence salvaged and reconditioned several timbers from a deconstructed First Nations carving studio at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria that the project could finally move forward. The salvaged timbers were re-dimensioned and resurfaced to achieve the two-by-three-foot beam sections essential for appropriate replacement.

As the Haida House is situated among many carvings and other artifacts, the first step was to install temporary protection for the seating, carvings and wall sills.  Carvings had to be left in place and undisturbed throughout the project. All doors, furniture and wall planks were documented and removed, and shoring and bracing were installed as necessary to secure the structure. With temporary stabilization in place, the roof planking was then documented and removed to reveal the underlying purlins, roof beams and closing-block timbers. A variety of non-destructive methods, such as resistography (micro-drilling) and ultrasonic inspection, were used to quantify the extent of timber decay with a high degree of accuracy. The project team created a detailed repairs schedule specific to the needs of each timber to retain the maximum amount of historic fabric, and a cost-certain rate for the client.

Building deconstruction and reassembly involved lifting and placing with great care 47-ft long purlins that weighed as much as two and a half tons, and then reinstating the closing blocks and roof planking without interfering with the totems. Once the roof structure was successfully repaired with the salvaged beams, nine-foot-long, hand-split cedar roof planks, manufactured using traditional methods, were installed. Finally, a red cedar plank floor was reconstructed in the spirit of traditional houses from Massett on Haida Gwai.

The Museum of Anthropology’s extensive collection of historic photos was used to guide the entire process. The project carefully followed Parks Canada's Standards & Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada.

The repairs to Haida House were completed on budget and on time, to coincide with the opening of the museum’s new gallery in January of 2010.

» www.moa.ubc.ca