Montreal's McCord Stewart Museum has solved its space issue — it's expanding, and it will receive $15 million from a private donor to help bring that plan to fruition.

The museum will expand up and out, with a new, 10-storey space to be built around the façade of the existing museum on Sherbrooke Street in downtown Montreal. It will also take over part of Victoria Street, which runs on the west side of the museum, and am empty lot on Président-Kennedy Avenue.

Once completed, the new space will house three recently merged museums — the McCord, the Stewart Museum and the Fashion Museum — under a single roof.

The project will cost $180 million, said Suzanne Sauvage, the museum's president and CEO, and will require funding from the provincial and federal governments.

"We want this museum to bring together Montrealers of all backgrounds and all ages, to help them understand their city and the world around them," she said.

The hope is the expansion will be funded in equal parts by the two levels of government and by private donors.

And while the government money isn't a sure thing yet, Monique Jérôme-Forget, chair of the museum's board of directors, said she was "very confident" the funding will be forthcoming.

She said they have been in touch with more than one provincial minister, including one that controls the purse strings.

One the project is done, the building will be able to welcome twice the number of visitors and feature a public garden, new gallery space and outdoor spaces.

Once finished, the museum will have an outdoor garden, as well as other new features. (DMA)

The timeline for the expansion is unclear, but the hope is to launch the architectural competition by late December. The museum is expected to close for about two years while the rebuild takes place.

The museum's administration has been looking for a new space for the last seven years, because it says the current one is too small.

The McCord has one of the largest historical collections in North America — over 1.5 million artifacts. But new donations are being turned away because of space constraints.

Only one per cent of the museum's collection is on display at any given time, and that number should be at least four or five per cent, Sauvage said.

Full circle, no bitterness

The city ceded half of Victoria Street to the museum for the project, but only after quashing a plan for a new building for the museum in the Quartier des Spectacles.

The museum had initially wanted to move entirely, and build on a parking lot off Bleury Street near the Place-des-Arts Metro, between de Maisonneuve Boulevard West and Président-Kennedy Avenue.

Montreal's Coderre administration had promised the McCord that space, but the Plante administration wants to turn it into a small park, to help combat the heat island effect in the city.

Work on the park hasn't started yet due to the construction of the light rail project, among other factors, Mayor Valérie Plante said.

In spite of the initial hurdles, Sauvage said she is happy with the outcome, and there is no lingering bitterness. The museum and city worked closely to come up with this plan.

"Life is strange sometimes, you know: you have to go full circle to come back [to] realize it's a fantastic location," she said.

President and CEO of the McCord Museum Suzanne Sauvage said right now, the museum only has enough room to display one per cent of its collection. (Charles Contant/CBC)

A major donation

La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso has donated $15 million toward the musuem expansion.

Gattuso lives in Toronto but grew up in Montreal — her parents, Lina and Pasquale Gattuso, were Italian immigrants who raised their family and started their business here, she said.

She described them as proud and generous Montrealers.

"In honour of them, I can't think of something more significant than helping this museum, which is the museum of the city of Montreal, to expand."