Canadian Architect

The New Canadian War Museum Revitalizes Ottawa's Lebreton Flats, Acknowledges the Parliament Buildings and Provides a Welcome Addition to the Institutional Importance of the Nation's Capital. Since the debut four months ago of the new Canadian War Museum, much has been written of its architecture. The design is characterized by volumes that both grow into and out of the earth like a geological formation, the leaning walls of its passageways, the fenestration that beams a bilingual Morse code admonishment--"Lest We Forget," the self-seeding roof draped by riverside flora, the Regeneration Hall that tenuously aligns with Parliament's Peace Tower in the distance, and the registration of a sunbeam upon the tomb of the unknown soldier inside Memorial Hall each Remembrance Day.