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News release details
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) welcomes renowned architect Antoine Predock to the Museum, hours before he receives a prestigious Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC).
Predock, the New Mexico‐based architect who designed the CMHR, is in Winnipeg to take part in the RAIC Festival of Architecture. With two festival events taking place at the Museum, architects from across Canada have now been introduced to the CMHR.
Antoine Predock at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in October 2013 (high res. version)
"I am pleased to welcome Antoine Predock back to the Museum, especially on the occasion of his receiving a 2014 Honorary Fellowship," said CMHR President and CEO Stuart Murray. "Antoine's career is marked by extraordinary, visionary design. His gift for evoking meaning through architecture is on full display at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights."
The CMHR, with its curving lines and bold geometry, is a striking landmark on the Winnipeg skyline that is already garnering national and international attention. Unique architectural elements, such as glowing white alabaster ramps that take visitors on a journey of light through darkness, the 100‐metre Tower of Hope and the interior Garden of Contemplation, symbolize human rights aspirations.
Located at the Forks, an ancient gathering place where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet, the Museum is in the midst of installing exhibits in preparation for its September 20, 2014 opening.
Predock will be inducted into the RAIC College of Fellows at a convocation ceremony at the Winnipeg Art Gallery this evening.
A biography and quotes from Antoine Predock are attached below.
About the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
The CMHR is the first museum in the world solely dedicated to the evolution, celebration and future of human rights. It is the first national museum in Canada to be built outside the National Capital Region. Using immersive multi‐media technology and other innovative approaches, the Museum will create inspiring encounters with human rights as part of a visitor experience unlike any other.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Rhea Yates
CMHR media relations advisor
T: 204.289.2120
C: 204.806.3526
rhea.yates@museumforhumanrights.ca
Biography of Antoine Predock
Antoine Predock is an internationally renowned architect with a diverse body of work, including museums, performing arts centres, a stadium, a library and a courthouse.
Born in 1936, Predock first gained attention with the La Luz community in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He first won a national design competition for the Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State University. His projects include Turtle Creek House in Dallas, built in 1993 for bird enthusiasts, the ballpark for the San Diego Padres and Austin City Hall and Public Plaza.
Predock's design vision for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights was selected following an international design competition. Construction of the Museum was substantially complete in the spring of 2013 and the Museum will open September 20, 2014.
Predock has received numerous architectural awards, including the AIA Gold medal — the highest award conferred by the American Institute of Architects. He was awarded a Smithsonian Cooper‐Hewitt Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He will receive an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 2014.
Predock's designs are highly influenced by his connection to the New Mexico landscape. He has described New Mexico as a force that has entered his system. Focusing on such subjects as the individual in a building as a spiritual interaction, the body in motion, the essence of humans, technology, and the natural environment, he relays a strong sense of contextual appropriateness to his design with careful interpretation of regional identity.
Antoine Predock Quotes:
"I think of my buildings as processional events, as choreographic events; they are an accumulation of vantage points both perceptual and experiential."
"My life in architecture has been an extraordinary adventure, culminating in the privilege of being selected to design the Canadian Museum for Human Rights."
"I'm often asked what my favorite, my most important building is. I'm going on the record right now. This is it [the Canadian Museum for Human Rights]."
This release is more than two years old
This release is more than two years old. For additional information, please contact Amanda Gaudes from our Media Relations team.