Following an international competition, the Montreal Holocaust Museum (MHM) has selected architecture offices KPMB Architects and Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker Architecture to design the new downtown museum building. Located on Blvd. St-Laurent, the museum is scheduled for opening in 2025. The MHM chose to move from its current location in response to the growing demand for its educational programs, which tackle important subjects such as the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights. The new building will contain multiple exhibition spaces, classrooms, an auditorium, a memorial garden, and a dedicated survivor testimony room.
The brilliant design succeeded in creating a space of powerful architecture that remains respectful and sensitive to the difficult history of the Holocaust and its human rights legacy that will be transmitted within its walls. - Daniel Amar, Executive Director of the MHM
By investing in a building designed to create spaces for learning, action, and coming together, the institution hopes to have a broader impact in galvanizing communities throughout Canada to fight all forms of hatred and persecution. The museum is dedicated to educating people of all ages and backgrounds about the Holocaust and the threats od antisemitism, racism, hate and indifference. To raise money for the project, the Museum launched the ’s Give Voice fundraising campaign, which earned $82 million of the $90 million project, with contributions from institutions such as Heritage Canada, Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, and the Azrieli Foundation.
The design, selected out of the 32 proposals received in the first stage of the architectural competition, is signed by two architecture offices KPMB Architects and Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker Architecture. KPMB, a Canada-based international practice, is involved in a number of cultural projects. The office has completed the Ottawa Art Gallery Expansion and University of Lethbridge Science Commons and has been selected the winner of the competition to design Nova Scotia’s Art Gallery. Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker Architecture is an architecture office established in 1988, involved in the fields of architecture, landscape, and urban design. In 2016, Renée Daoust and Réal Lestage were awarded the Prix Ernest-Cormier, the highest distinction awarded by the Government of Québec in the fields of Architecture and Design.
