Montreal Biosphère, Environment museum in Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal, Canada
The Biosphere is a geodesic dome of silver steel struts forming an open lattice sphere, 76 metres in diameter and 62 metres high. Inside the lower section, enclosed buildings with flat platforms, railings and angled roofs sit on vertical columns. The sphere rises above a rectangular pool of dark water, with a low wall and green plants at its base.
Buckminster Fuller designed the pavilion as the American contribution to Expo 67, with a 1976 fire destroying the original acrylic skin and enabling its transformation into an environmental museum in 1995.
The museum presents rotating exhibitions about the Saint Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and global water systems, with visitors learning through hands-on stations and digital simulations.
The Biosphere stands on Saint Helen's Island in Parc Jean-Drapeau, reached by Jean-Drapeau station on the Yellow Line, one stop from Berri-UQAM. The dome is a short walk from the station; paths around the island connect it to the Jean-Drapeau park sectors. The museum building inside the steel skeleton is fully enclosed and can be visited year-round.
The dome's steel lattice survived the 1976 fire that consumed its acrylic skin, and the site stayed empty until 1990. During Expo 67 the pavilion drew 5.3 million visitors, the fair's highest attendance, who rode a 41-metre escalator to the top platforms. NASA capsules Freedom 7, Gemini 7 and Apollo AS-202 hung from the frame.
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