This 440,561 square foot new museum shows how war has shaped Canada, and presents the personal, national and international dimensions of our military history. Its mission is to Remember, Preserve and Educate. The Canadian War Museum is Canada's national museum of military heritage. It occupied the former Public Archives building at 330 Sussex Drive in Ottawa since 1967. The location for the new building is on LeBreton Flats, about two kilometres west of Parliament Hill. This new facility features; greatly expanded exhibition space, including room for the display of large military vehicles and artillery pieces, a gallery for Canada's magnificent collection of war art, outdoor spaces suitable for commemorative events, ceremonies and demonstrations, classrooms for various workshops and the teaching of different aspects of Canada's military history, a theatre for performances, major speaking engagements and films, much-improved research and library facilities, climate-controlled storage space, a powerful Internet-based outreach program, and public amenities appropriate to a modern museum. This facility houses 4,180 square metres (45,000 square feet) of exhibition space. When the new facility opened its doors in 2005, it is expected that it would attract more than 300,000 visitors each year. Visitors will be able to view the dots and dashes punched through the exterior wall that spell out the initials for the Canadian War Museum in English and French in Morse code. On sunny days, "CWM" and "MCG" will be projected in Morse code into the building, visible to all. Overall, the building is seen as a complex composition of horizontal volumes and planes. The environmentally sensitive landscaped roof is both low-maintenance and self-seeding.
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