glacier skywalk
CLIENT
Pursuit (Formerly Brewster Travel Canada)
YEAR
2012
STATUS
Completed
LOCATION
Jasper National Park, Canada
The Glacier Skywalk is an architectural tourist experience drawing over 375,000 people per year to experience the Columbia Icefields. The Skywalk functions as an outdoor interpretive exhibit leading the users to a glass-floored cantilever 280m above the Sunwapta Valley.
The educational nodes appear as landscape objects, emerging from the geology. The Discovery Vista projects from the face of the mountainside allowing the visitors to experience the grandeur of the glacier at a distance, and the valley below.
The natural landscape was the inspiration for the design and also informed the materiality. The thrust-fault geological movement in the area has created a fractal landscape, influencing the architectural form. The angular forms, rusted hues, and warm texture of the Corten steel finish relate to the rocky outcroppings of the surrounding mountains. The glazing mimics the glacial flow below.
The Glacier Discovery Walk has won many awards including the World Architecture Festival, and Architizer A+ Award.