Montreal Biosphere

Montreal’s Biosphere occupies the former United States pavilion from Expo 67, a geodesic dome designed by R. Buckminster Fuller with Shoji Sadao and Geometrics Inc. Built in 1967 as a fully enclosed steel-and-acrylic structure, it housed major exhibits ranging from NASA spacecraft to American art and film. After the fair, it served changing roles in Man and His World until a 1976 fire destroyed its acrylic skin, leaving the exposed steel frame. Closed for years, it reopened in 1995 as an interactive museum and was broadened in 2007 into an environmental museum. It endures as a major landmark of postwar architecture.