The Museum, located on a very impressive campus site overlooking the Strait of Georgia and the North Shore Mountains, has both academic and public functions. Among its unique features is the visible storage of all artifacts. This eliminates the need to rotate collections from public display to private storage. It also recreates several Indian villages around a pond on the Museum site including vegetation consistent with their original locale.

The focal point of the Museum is the high ceiling Great Hall housing massive totem poles. Large glass windows, towering up to forty feet in height, provide an unobstructed view and enable the totem poles to be seen in daylight against a natural exterior setting. The rest of the galleries house collections of Indian art and other tribal art. An experimental gallery is provided for travelling and student exhibits and for display experiments.

The need for this major expansion to the award-winning Museum of Anthropology has been generated by three factors. First, although the museum was originally intended primarily for the University's use, it is extensively utilized and visited by the general public and has become a cultural focus of British Columbian life. A significant portion of these visitors consists of parties of school children and tour groups. Second, the range of functions accommodated in the Museum is being expanded to include a variety of special events that occur after the normal operating hours and require controlled access and a climate controlled environment. These special events will include live anthropologically oriented performances, such as song, dance, and special national and international travelling exhibits. Third, the Museum has been offered various existing collections but, due to limited exhibit, storage, and support space, has not been able to accept or accommodate them.

Responding to the original expansion guidelines established at the project's conception, the proposed expansion will occur in two main areas. First, to the west of the main entrance will be located an expanded entrance lobby, gift shop, and orientation space that primarily reflects the major increase in the Museum's general public usage. Leading from these areas, controlled entry will be provided to the new main exhibit hall, which will accommodate both the special travelling exhibitions and live performances. Below these spaces will be located a range of ancrnary uses such as storage, exhibition preparation, and support space. Second, extending to the east of the existing masterpiece gallery, new exhibition areas for small artifacts will be provided. Although this extension will be visually significant, the architectural vocabulary, materials, and construction systems utilized will fully respect and correspond to the existing building so that the junction between the existing and new will not be apparent. There will also be minimal impact on the existing landscape and flora.