Take a peek at the proposed plans for our new museum

We are coming up on a year since we closed the doors on the physical museum. During that year, we’ve worked very hard to make sure everybody knows that we are still a functioning museum and one that will be opening its doors again in a few years on a beautiful new space, with an expanded mission and mandate. In case you don’t believe us, we’ve arranged for a sneak peek at some real architectural plans and elevations.

As you can imagine, we are all very excited about the preliminary plans for our new museum space. True, we have to apply adjectives like ‘may’ and ‘likely’ and ‘proposed’ when speaking of the different aspects of said plans; we know that many changes may occur as renovations progress. Nevertheless there are things we can tell you and, frankly, we’re just bursting to do so.

Probably the best news is that the new museum will have more than twice the exhibition space of the old museum. You may wonder how we’ll fill it with such tiny things as coins and bills—don’t fret, our future museum will also be an interpretive centre for the Bank, bringing to Canadians the work of the Bank in creative and memorable ways. And that’s going to take some room.

Outside, we will have a highly visible street level entrance. No longer will we be a museum people tend to stumble upon; instead our entrance is going to be very conspicuous among the ever flowing rivers of walk-by traffic. Visitors will enter our space through a large glass structure, then take stairs or an elevator to reach the Museum itself, one level below ground.

Okay, so far we can’t tell you all that much and much of what we can tell you is far from certain. Nevertheless, we’re happy to be able to at least begin lifting the curtain on what, from our perspective, has all the earmarks of an exciting future.