Anvil Centre

Visited this place from the states and this was a big WOW factor with our family and our children. It’s VERY rare to go to any museum/​centre/​gallery that is free, so this was a big treat for us. The staff at the PoPart exhibits were very friendly and allowed us along with our children (7 years and under) to go in the two exhibits: one room filled with black balloons that you attempt to move inside blind state and another exhibit that has a clear black balloon with charcoal spikes. It was a big hit with our children and we were thankful to have the chance to go on the last day they had it.
Other than that, we thought the place was very clean and we took a tour of the rest of the museum galleries. The one about Michael Jackson visiting New Westminster was pretty cool. :)

DH & I were here for the Grand Opening on September 14, 2014.
They have conference space for up to 500 but the Theatre only seats 364.
On the ground floor, the ladies washroom door has a lever that must be used before the door can open. Why didn’t they just have a door that you push open? Also, the door is a bit heavy & there is no button on the outside that you can push for the door to open automatically.
The stairs appear to be marble. May be slippery when wet.
The Columbia street side is just baking when the sun is out.
You couldn’t feel the air conditioning.
When I mentioned it to one of the volunteers, she said that the individual venues + rooms had air conditioning but it felt very weak.
Also, I hit my shoulder against one of the slanted walls.
The Centre also houses the Lacrosse Hall of Fame & the New Westminster Archives (very interesting).
Some of the pathways are very narrow. If you only have 500 people walking around, it might be ok.
I hope they will be successful as it cost $ 41 million to build.