The Queens’ Lantern

The light-filled area of the Canadian Museum of Nature known as The Queens’ Lantern, and Pelagia noctiluca, or the mauve stinger, the giant inflatable jellyfish currently on display.

“The Victoria Memorial Museum Building’s new glass “lantern” is sure to catch your eye. This luminous structure above the main entrance was unveiled in 2010 and presents a strikingly visible addition to the 100-year- old museum. It fills a decades-old void left by the removal of the museum’s original four-storey stone tower in 1915–16.

On June 30, 2010, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II toured the newly renovated museum and unveiled a plaque officially naming the new Queens’ Lantern. The title honours both Queen Elizabeth and her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, after whom the Victoria Memorial Museum Building is named.

The Queens’ Lantern is more than an aesthetic addition: it serves an important function. It houses a much-needed staircase, allowing visitors to move easily from the second to the fourth floor. This resolves a long-standing limitation for the historic building. The original design of David Ewart, Dominion Chief Architect, only provided easy public access to the second floor, via the grand staircase in the Atrium.”

Queens’ Lantern facts

• Constructed in 2008 and 2009
• Officially opened to the public on May 22, 2010
• Glass manufactured at Pilkington Glassworks in England.
• Steel (columns and roof truss) manufactured in Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa.
• 160 panes of face glass
• 120 pieces of glass “fins”
• 136,000 kg (300,000 lb.) of steel
• 90,700 kg (200,000 lb.) of exterior glass
• 929 m2 of exterior glass
• 334 m2 of interior glass