After winning the competition way back in July 2009, OMA's Pierre Lassonde Pavilion is ready to make its public debut tomorrow. Nestled within Quebec City's 17th-century architecture and located at the historic National Battlefields Park, the Pavilion is the shiny new kid on the block with its boxy stacked form and glass-ridden exterior. OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu designed the museum alongside Jason Long and Ceren Bingol, in collaboration with Montreal-based Provencher_Roy architectes.

The new Pavilion adds more than 160,000 square-feet of exhibition space to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) and was intentionally designed to continue the topography of the nearby park, says Shigematsu. “Art becomes a catalyst that allows the visitor to experience all three core assets – park, city, and museum – at the same time,” he said. 

The three stacked galleries of decreasing size will each house the museum's Contemporary Exhibition, the Permanent Contemporary collection, and the Design and Inuit Galleries collection. The four-floored expansion also includes a cantilevered Grand Hall, auditorium, bookstore-gift shop, cafe, green roof, and courtyard, among other facilities. 

Previously on Archinect:

A tour of OMA's Pierre Lassonde Pavilion