Stamped!

Point Grey Campus

University of British Columbia

UBC's Brock Commons Tallwood House was the tallest mass timber building in the world when it opened in 2017, and Arthur Erickson's Museum of Anthropology recreates the post-and-beam houses of Northwest Coast First Nations in concrete.

  • 5Buildings
  • 3Traditions
  • 1960Oldest · Nitobe Memorial Garden
  • 2017Newest · Brock Commons Tallwood House

Planning the visit

  • Fly intoVancouver International Airport (YVR)

    YVR is on Sea Island in Richmond, south of the campus. The Canada Line takes you into Vancouver, where buses continue west to the UBC Exchange.

  • Getting aroundBus / Walking

    Frequent buses run from downtown Vancouver and the Canada Line to the UBC Exchange in the centre of campus. From there, Main Mall leads on foot to most of the buildings.

  • Colors and teams

    The campus sits on Point Grey, and it is not officially part of the City of Vancouver, even though everyone thinks of it as Vancouver.

5 buildings to stamp

  1. Museum of Anthropology

    6393 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC

    Arthur Erickson's concrete museum takes its form from the post-and-beam houses of Northwest Coast First Nations. Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and the First Men sits on a repurposed wartime gun battery.

    Built
    1976
    Architect
    Arthur Erickson
    Style
    Modernist
    Today
    Museum of world arts and cultures

  2. Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

    Chan Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC

    A concert hall set among evergreens and rhododendrons, with a 37-tonne acoustic canopy of steel and cork hanging over the stage. Cornelia Oberlander designed its landscape.

    Built
    1997
    Architect
    Bing Thom Architects
    Style
    Contemporary
    Today
    Performing arts centre

  3. Brock Commons Tallwood House

    6088 Walter Gage Road, Vancouver, BC

    An 18-storey student residence that was the tallest mass timber structure in the world when it opened. It stands 53 metres tall.

    Built
    2017
    Architect
    Acton Ostry Architects
    Style
    Mass timber
    Height
    53 m (174 ft)
    Stories
    18
    Today
    Student residence

  4. C. K. Choi Building

    1855 West Mall, Vancouver, BC

    A pioneer of green design, built on an old parking lot with about half of its materials recycled or reused, and with natural ventilation. Its architecture uses Asian motifs for the Institute of Asian Research inside.

    Built
    1996
    Architect
    Matsuzaki Wright Architects
    Style
    Sustainable design
    Stories
    3
    Today
    Institute of Asian Research
  5. Nitobe Memorial Garden
    Photo: AirplaneMood, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    Nitobe Memorial Garden

    1895 Lower Mall, Vancouver, BC

    A traditional Japanese garden honouring the diplomat Nitobe Inazō, who hoped to be a bridge across the Pacific. Kannosuke Mori of Chiba University designed it, and it opened in June 1960.

    Built
    1960
    Architect
    Kannosuke Mori
    Style
    Japanese garden
    Today
    Japanese garden

3 traditions to check off

Stamped! keeps these as a checklist, so you can tick each one off on the visit.

  • The Great Trek Cairn

    This stone cairn on Main Mall marks the 1922 Great Trek, when students marched to Point Grey to push the government to finish the campus, and it was built from stones gathered on site. A ceremony is held there each September during Homecoming, and visitors can read its inscription any time.

  • The Painted Engineering Cairn

    Engineering students look after a concrete monument on Main Mall that is repainted for causes, anniversaries and campus events. Visitors can stop by to see its latest paint job.

  • Ladner Clock Tower Chimes

    The Ladner Clock Tower in front of the Main Library chimes on the hour, and its carillon plays short sets during the day and on special occasions such as convocation. Visitors can listen from the Library Garden.

Know University of British Columbia well?

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