What the heck is that thing?
The “thing” looming over Bank Street, summer 2015.
Anybody wandering past the Bank of Canada’s Ottawa head office cannot be blamed for staring at the curious structure looming over Bank Street and wondering “What the heck is that thing?”
Good question.
In an Ottawa Sun article from July 2015, reporter Keaton Robbins asked a similar question of a number of passers by on Bank Street. Apparently only one of them answered correctly. Some people thought it was a parking garage, others a monument, public art or a train station. A popular guess was a skateboard park but the most common response was some variant of “I have absolutely no idea.”
It seems a pretty strange building but now it has a solid roof, glass walls and doors. Doors? Ah, there’s your clue. It’s no skateboard park—it’s the entrance pyramid for the Bank of Canada Museum.
Underneath the bumble bee tarps is a glass curtain wall. February 2016.
The new Bank of Canada Museum entrance illustration. The Yap Stone will probably live here as well.
For all of us at the Museum, that entrance is a very big deal. For 30 years, the Currency Museum lived quietly in the back of the Bank’s original head office building. Problem was, the Museum was invisible from the street. The Museum’s current Director admits that the first time he found the Currency Museum it was by complete accident. In fact, one of the ways the Museum was typically described in those days was as a “hidden gem.”
Well, we’re done hiding. The Museum team is very pleased to have a big, bright street-level entrance that will make the Museum a prominent feature of one of Canada’s most popular tourist districts. Anybody “stumbling upon” the Bank of Canada Museum will have to stumble into an enormous wall of glass and steel—so please, do take care.
The Museum pyramid has another purpose, to act as a skylight for the warm and welcoming reception area beneath it. With the sunlit stairs and the broad view of the skyline provided by the glass portico, there will be little sense of being below ground. In terms of design, we are in good company with other museum renovations such as that of Royal Ontario Museum’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal and the Louvre Pyramid.
The portico roof is a green roof with public seating for events and outdoor lunching. 
The Bank of Canada Plaza will continue to be a public gathering space and extension of the Sparks Street Mall. With the terraced seating on the green roof of the Museum pyramid, the plaza will be a better place than ever to share lunch with colleagues or enjoy the sunshine.
The Bank of Canada Museum portico from the back, looking towards Parliament Hill.
Having lunch on us.
So when we re-open in 2017, we’ll invite you to have your lunch on the Bank of Canada Museum—literally.
We want to hear from you! Do you have an idea for a blog post you’d like to see?
Content type(s):
Blog posts
The Museum Blog
May 5, 2022
What was proposed was a complete about-face from the philosophy behind recent security printing. If photocopiers could easily deal with the colours and designs of the current series, then the next series should be bold and simple.
Between tradition and technology
By: Graham Iddon
Content type(s):
Blog posts
April 21, 2022
From windmills and solar panels to electric cars, signs of the green economy are all around us. Check out our resources for how to teach about the green economy.
Teaching the green economy
By: Adam Young
Content type(s):
Blog posts
Subject(s):
Business and careers,
Economy,
Geography,
Science,
Social studies
Grade level(s):
Grade 07 / Secondary 1,
Grade 08 / Secondary 2,
Grade 09 / Secondary 3,
Grade 10 / Secondary 4,
Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5 and CEGEP
April 4, 2022
Introduce important financial skills to your children, and help them plan for their futures with free resources from the Bank of Canada Museum and others.
Talk to your kids about money
Content type(s):
Blog posts
Subject(s):
Financial literacy
Grade level(s):
Early childhood / Kindergarten,
Grade 01,
Grade 02,
Grade 03,
Grade 04,
Grade 05,
Grade 06,
Grade 07 / Secondary 1,
Grade 08 / Secondary 2,
Grade 09 / Secondary 3,
Grade 10 / Secondary 4,
Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5 and CEGEP
March 3, 2022
COVID-19 has had an unprecedented effect on the economy: closing businesses, driving down demand and interrupting supplies. With news stories and popular culture addressing inflation and supply chain issues, now is the perfect time to explain this key economic concept to your high school students.
Teaching inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic
Content type(s):
Blog posts
Subject(s):
Economy
Grade level(s):
Grade 09 / Secondary 3,
Grade 10 / Secondary 4,
Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5 and CEGEP
February 3, 2022
Few of us have ever met her, and it’s likely none of us are even remotely related to her. Yet, Canadians have carried her picture in their wallets for generations now. She’s Queen Elizabeth II and has been our monarch for over 70 years.
Queen of the bank notes
By: Graham Iddon
Content type(s):
Blog posts
Subject(s):
History
December 22, 2021
The Bank of Canada Museum is responsible for the National Currency Collection, and part of its mandate is to foster and develop that collection. Despite the challenges of collecting during a pandemic, curators at the Bank of Canada Museum have acquired some unique artifacts—including some that document the pandemic itself.
New acquisitions–2021 edition
By: David Bergeron
Content type(s):
Blog posts
December 2, 2021
What is money—when you really stop to think about it? To understand how money works, and what it ultimately represents, we need to strip it down to its very basic function.
The true value of money
By: Graham Iddon
Content type(s):
Blog posts
Subject(s):
Economy
Grade level(s):
Grade 07 / Secondary 1,
Grade 08 / Secondary 2,
Grade 09 / Secondary 3,
Grade 10 / Secondary 4,
Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5 and CEGEP
