The Reynolds-Alberta Museum (Reynolds) is a provincially owned museum operated by the Heritage and Museums Division of Alberta Culture and Tourism. The museum collects, preserves, presents, and interprets Alberta’s machine heritage in the areas of transportation, aviation, agriculture, and industry from the 1890s to the present. The new Collections Facility East is designed to add to Reynold’s existing five buildings situated on a 223-acre campus, just west of Wetaskiwin, Alberta.

The design of the facility is focused on housing the museum’s aviation collection including approximately 70 assembled aircraft in a 65,000 SF hanger space, 16 m in height, and unassembled aircraft on 10 m high mobile racking in a 10,000 SF area. The collections space is flexibly designed so the facility could also house other types of collections – agricultural machinery, trucks, cars, etc. – that the Museum might wish to both preserve and present to the public.

The facility design includes a resource centre for storing Reynolds’ collection of technical data, manuals, and other collection-related documents in a controlled environment.

The public component of the new facility provides an opportunity for the public to gain access to the stored collections in a variety of controlled manners. A large open lobby provides a reception space and display areas; a multipurpose room accommodates classroom groups for education programs related to Reynolds’ collection and special events; and a viewing gallery allows the public to see into the vast collections storage space.