Within the UBC Ponderosa Commons is the Audain Art Centre, an academic facility for the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory. The gallery was imagined and designed as a both a signpost to the faculty and as a foundation to promote art to the campus community and beyond. The intent was to find the balance between allowing the public visual and/or physical access to the artistic process while creating enough privacy for creative incubation inside the flexible studio spaces. Faculty are encourage to collaborate and critique in critique space lounges, corridors, adjacent courtyard and public realm, creating a larger, open air gallery within the Commons.

This project is a joint venture between KPMB Architects and hcma.