Fun Facts About The Canadian Museum of Human Rights

The CMHR is the world’s only museum solely dedicated to awareness and education about the importance of human rights for all. It is not based around a collection of artifacts, but designed to illuminate a powerful idea.

• The first new national museum built in Canada since 1967.
• Rests on four massive stone “roots” covered with 2,867 metres of green roofs consisting of Prairie tall grass, and is topped by a glowing “Tower of Hope” rising 100 metres above the city (eight metres higher than Ottawa’s Peace Tower).
• Eleven galleries are housed within a “mountain” of 400 million-year-old limestone, surrounded by a glass “cloud” of 1,300 panes ‐ no two exactly the same. It takes a raindrop about eight minutes to slide from top to bottom of the cloud.
• Visitors travel through galleries along 800 metres of glowing ramps clad in Spanish alabaster ‐ a literal path of light through the darkness. It takes a fit person about 30 minutes to walk continuously from the main entrance, through all the galleries, to the Tower’s observation deck.
• Home to 300 objects, artifacts and works of art.
• Features seven theatres, an immersive multimedia experience, a 360-degree film, and two soundscapes.
• The first major project in Canada to use virtual reality construction design across all contractor groups.
• The most inclusive design in Canadian history, setting new Canadian and world standards for universal accessibility, and surpassing Smithsonian standards.
• The $351-million project is a unique example of private-public collaboration.