Architect who designed 'unique marvel' of Canadian Museum for Human Rights dead at 87

World-renowned architect Antoine Predock was not interested in entering competitions until 2003, when the global search for a design of the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights popped up on his computer screen.

Predock was the New Mexico-based architect behind the winning design for the national museum in Winnipeg, in what was one of Canada's largest juried architectural competitions, held by the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

"In my opinion, I don't think there's any building like it … in the world today," Moe Levy, who was the director of the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at that time, told CBC News on Tuesday.

"It is truly a unique marvel of architecture."

Predock, 87, died Saturday in Albuquerque, N.M., after a five-year battle with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a chronic disease that results in scarring on people's lungs, his wife Constance Dejong told CBC News.

Over six decades, Predock created buildings around the world, from the College of Media and Communication in Qatar to public spaces, including the Padres baseball stadium in San Diego, the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix and Austin's city hall.

One of Predock's proudest accomplishments was the human rights museum, which was later featured on Canada's $10 bill — opposite of civil rights activist Viola Desmond.

Predock had a photocopy of the bill in his pocket, always ready to unfold it and strike up a conversation about the importance of Desmond and the museum project.

He was thrilled to have won the design competition for the museum, his wife Dejong said, as he had always wanted to design a building that involved human rights.

The museum is more than just a building and encases "the spirit of humanity," she said.

She isn't surprised that the museum has become as iconic as it has in Winnipeg's skyline since "it just doesn't look like anything else."

Levy says there were 63 designs to choose from during the competition, which attracted a "who's who" of the architecture world.

"We were looking for — truly — an iconic design, one that would stand out and convey the message of human rights," he said.

"To Antoine's credit, not many of the architects came here before they bid on it. He came here and he looked at everything related to the city, the soil."