Antoine Predock kept craning his head skyward.

"Look up," he implored. "Look up."

Predock was perched on the white translucent alabaster ramps that criss-cross up the Hall of Hope, his signature artistic brush strokes of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. When lit, the ramps illuminate — a metaphor for the museum itself — and lead visitors up the spiral staircase to the observation deck overlooking the skyline in the historic heart of Winnipeg.

It's a journey to the Tower of Hope that begins in an entranceway slightly beneath ground level; from earth to sky. Or, in the description of Predock, "a cloud wrapping a mountain."

But Predock, the 78-year-old designer of the CMHR, was a bit of a Rebel Without Applause during a guided tour of his latest creation in early May. He was his usual glib, sly self, decked out in motorcycle racing pants, and seemed braced for those who might throw critical stones at his glass house.

"It's so important for architects to shoot their mouths off all the time," Predock said. "It's an epidemic. You can't not do it. But the bottom line is: 'Come to the building.' You don't have to know about cloud or human rights metaphors. Just, 'What do you think?' Here it is.

"Experience it with your mind, with your body, with your senses. Take it on. See what happens to you," the architect added. "You don't have to know what the building is trying to do. You shouldn't have to be force-fed that for it to hit you — positively or negatively. It's a love-hate building. We saw that from the beginning.

"And this one's begging to be (loved or hated), saying, 'Come on. Come and get me.' "