One of Canada’s leading cultural institutions, the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec is opening its brand-new modernist addition on June 24, just in time for Québec’s annual Fête Nationale celebrations. Designed byOMA New York’sShohei Shigematsu, in collaboration with Montreal architecture firm Provencher Roy, the cantilevered 160,000-square-foot structure broke ground in September 2013 with a budget of $81 million. Named the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion (after the museum board’s chairman), the four-story edifice sits directly onQuebec City’sfabled Grande Allée and increases the museum’s floor space by 90 percent. With all that room, the institution is debuting no fewer than seven contemporary exhibitions for the opening, among them a show featuring works by Inuit artists.
In coming up with the glazed structure’s design, Shigematsu found inspiration in the surrounding National Battlefields Park, which holds the museum’s three older buildings. “The concept places three volumes on top of one another in such a way that they form a cascade that extends the topography of the park,” he said in a statement. (The tiered pavilion connects to the rest of the compound via a subterranean passageway, which contains three galleries.) In the 41-foot-tall lobby, a showstopping spiral staircase composed of four steel sections ascends to a third-floor terrace, which offers sweeping views of the St. Lawrence River. To mark the opening, the museum is holding three days of free activities. For more information visitwww.mnbaq.org/en.
