Simon Fraser University

The Academic Quadrangle at SFU Burnaby, serving as the Caprica City Riverwalk Market ^{(TRS: "Miniseries")}.

Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public university with campuses in Burnaby, Vancouver, and Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Its Burnaby campus — a Brutalist concrete complex atop Burnaby Mountain — is the single most heavily used filming location across the Battlestar Galactica franchise, appearing in the Miniseries, multiple seasons of Battlestar Galactica, and throughout Caprica. Its Surrey campus, located in the Central City development in Surrey City Centre, also appears in Caprica.

Architecture

Burnaby campus

In the early 1960s, the provincial government of British Columbia held an architectural competition for a new university to be built on Burnaby Mountain. Architects Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey (Erickson/Massey Architects) submitted a design that broke several of the competition's rules. Erickson later recalled asking Massey "if they wanted to win or show what they believed in"; they chose the latter, and were chosen as the unanimous winners. The campus was awarded the Massey Medal for architectural excellence shortly after its completion in 1965.

Erickson conceived the campus as a modern Acropolis: "building and mountain would appear to be part of each other." The design organizes a central covered mall, an academic quadrangle, student union, and residences in a continuous terraced complex of precast and poured concrete, all interconnected by a covered walkway spanning the mountain ridge. Each major building within the plan was designed by a different architect: the Academic Quadrangle by Zoltan Kiss; the W.A.C. Bennett Library by Robert F. Harrison; the Science Complex by Rhone & Iredale Architects; the Theatre and Gymnasium by Duncan McNab and Associates; with landscape by John Lantzius & Associates. The W.A.C. Bennett Library later had two stories added in the mid-1970s.

The university opened on September 9, 1965. The Burnaby campus sits at approximately 390 metres (1,200 feet) above sea level on 420 acres of land on Burnaby Mountain, northeast of Vancouver. The campus is built on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) First Nations.

Surrey campus

SFU's Surrey campus opened in Fall 2006 above the Central City shopping and office development at 10153 King George Boulevard, Surrey — adjacent to Surrey Central SkyTrain station. The Central City development and SFU campus above it were designed by architect Bing Thom and adorned with Indigenous art contributed by Katzie and Semiahmoo First Nations.

Appearances in Battlestar Galactica

The Burnaby campus has been used for BSG locations from the Miniseries through the series finale. The Academic Quadrangle — a rectangular courtyard with a long reflecting pool, enclosed by the Zoltan Kiss-designed classroom block — is the specific area most frequently used, appearing in multiple roles across the run of the series.

Miniseries

The Academic Quadrangle serves as the Riverwalk Market, Caprica City — its on-screen label — in the opening scenes depicting Caprica before the Cylon attack. The market dressing was achieved with portable set pieces; no substantial alteration was made to the physical location. This is where Caprica Six kills an infant in the market and later meets her contact.

The W.A.C. Bennett Library is used in a brief Miniseries sequence in which Gaius Baltar gloats to Number Six about his success in the defense project; the scene continues into the Academic Quadrangle, which the Library adjoins.

"Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I" and "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II"

Three separate SFU buildings appear in these episodes, all redressed as locations on Caprica following the Cylon attack:

• The Transportation Centre (labeled as such on SFU campus maps; a student building whose ground floor features four staircases descending into a pit area) is dressed with debris for the sequence in which Helo and Sharon make their way through a ruined section of the city.

• The West Mall Centre (at the entrance where Burnaby Mountain Parkway meets Gaglardi Way) serves as the exterior of the Delphi Museum of the Colonies, where Kara Thrace lands the captured Cylon Raider and retrieves the Arrow of Apollo.

• The steps outside the Academic Quadrangle (Gaglardi Way side) are where Helo shoots Sharon — an alternate camera angle reveals the inside windows of the Quadrangle itself in the background.

"Epiphanies"

The Academic Quadrangle reappears during Laura Roslin's flashbacks to the Caprica Riverwalk before the Fall, reusing the same Miniseries Riverwalk Market dressing area.

"Daybreak, Part I" and "Daybreak, Part II"

The Academic Quadrangle's reflecting pool is used for the Caprica flashback sequence in which Laura Roslin goes swimming after receiving her cancer diagnosis. Production filmed at the AQ in July 2008, returning to the same location used at the start of the entire series.

Appearances in Caprica

Both the Burnaby and Surrey campuses are used extensively in Caprica as various Caprica City exteriors and off-world locations.

SFU Burnaby

The Academic Quadrangle continues to serve as the Caprica City Riverwalk throughout Caprica, consistent with its use in Battlestar Galactica. The campus is used for a wide range of general Caprica City establishing and street-level scenes across the series.

SFU Surrey (Central City)

The SFU Surrey mezzanine and registrar's office areas within the Central City development served as the Caprica Inter-Colonial Spaceport in the Caprica pilot and subsequent episodes.

The Central City development's distinctive roof structure and newer construction also served as Vergis Corporation headquarters on Tauron in "Know Thy Enemy" (1x06).

Notes

• SFU's Burnaby campus has been used for science fiction film and television production since 1971, beginning with The Groundstar Conspiracy. Productions filmed there include The X-Files, Stargate SG-1, The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), Underworld Awakening (2012), and many others. MONTECRISTO Magazine described it as a location where "building and mountain would appear to be part of each other," noting its Brutalist concrete evokes equally a classical ruin and a futuristic installation to location scouts.

• Arthur Erickson, who designed the SFU Burnaby campus master plan, also designed the Waterfall Building (the most-used interior BSG filming location in Vancouver) and oversaw the renovation of the Vancouver Art Gallery (the former provincial courthouse used for Caprica exterior scenes).

• The university is named after Simon Fraser, a fur trader with the North West Company who led a colonial expedition through the region in the early 19th century. It is not named after Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat (the Jacobite figure), nor after the Fraser clan's patriarch.

References

External Links

• BSG Season 1 Locations (Pat Suwalski) — includes full SFU location map
• SFU Locations Guide at battlestarlocations.com
• Academic Quadrangle filming locations at MovieMaps
• How SFU Became Hollywood's Face of the Future — MONTECRISTO Magazine

See also

• Filming locations (RDM)
• Waterfall Building
• Vancouver Public Library