Montreal Holocaust Museum selects design team for new Saint-Laurent Boulevard headquarters

A joint Canadian team of KPMB Architects and Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker will lead the design and development of the Montreal Holocaust Museum’s new downtown location following an international competition that drew more than 30 proposals from across the world.

In an effort to accommodate the museum’s expanded mission at a critical time when antisemitism and racism are both on documented inclines, the project will deliver an entirely-new $90 million facility for the institution, which has operated out of a space in the city’s Cote-des-Neiges region since first being founded by a group of survivors and their descendants in 1979. 

Montreal has historically maintained a Jewish population that until very recently was the largest in Canada. The new facility will therefore be based on pillars of memory, education, and community and feature a slate of modernized exhibition and classroom spaces, an auditorium, a memorial garden, and rooms dedicated to the important testimony of those who experienced the terror and hardship of Nazi war crimes first-hand.

“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,” the museum’s Executive Director Daniel Amar said in a statement.

Construction will commence sometime in 2023 with an expected completion at the 3535 Blvd. St-Laurent site set for 2025.