The official name of the museum building is the Victoria Memorial Museum Building. Situated on McLeod Street in Ottawa, it has been the home of the Canadian Museum of Nature (formerly the National Museum of Natural Sciences) since 1912. Over the many years since its construction, the building has become a national monument and landmark.

A fine example of early 20th-century architecture, the "castle" has had a long and lively history. In 1905, in a field in the south of Ottawa, work began on a massive new building formed out of local sandstone.

The chief architect and designer, David Ewart, created a fanciful castle-like structure that has been described as "Scottish baronial" in design. The architecture was intended to mirror the Centre Block of Canada's Parliament Buildings, due north of the museum's site. Both buildings share similar stonework on the facade and, at one time, shared a similar tower. Unfortunately, in 1915, the top of the museum's tower was removed because the foundation could not sustain the tower's weight.

A new tower, called the Queens' Lantern, replaced it at last, in 2010. The lantern actually hangs from a specially constructed roof that is cantilevered from new concrete walls inside the building. Unlike the original heavy tower, it does not impose any weight on the existing masonry walls. Four large steel columns provide the structural support for the roof. Hanging from the roof are 160 panes of face glass and 120 glass "fins".