Museum explores human rights
Acclaimed ABQ architect Antoine Predock designs human rights museum
Antoine Predock’s latest highprofile project is now complete.
A renowned architect who calls Albuquerque home, Predock designed the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. The 260,000-square-foot venue — billed as “the world’s only museum solely devoted to the exploration and celebration of human rights” — held its grand opening in September.
The $350 million project was more than a decade in the making, according to The National Post newspaper.
“My life in architecture has been an extraordinary adventure, culminating in the privilege of being selected to design the Canadian Museum for Human Rights,” Predock said in a statement.
Architects from 64 countries had entered an international design competition when the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights launched the search in 2003, according to the museum website. Predock — who studied at University of New Mexico and has many major projects to his credit — was chosen.
The museum features a rounded exterior — intended to suggest its being wrapped in the wings of a white dove — and a centralized “Tower of Hope” that extends 100 meters high. Inside, alabaster ramps lead visitors into various galleries.
The building incorporates 3,200-square-meter plates of alabaster quarried in Spain, 1,669 plates of glass and 600 tons of black basalt from Mongolia, according to the museum’s website.