Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of world culture and natural history based in Toronto, Ontario. It is one of the largest museums in North America, attracting over one million visitors every year.^[1] The museum is located north of Queen's Park in the University of Toronto district, with its main entrance facing Bloor Street.

Established on April 16, 1912 and opened on March 19th, 1914, the museum has maintained close relations with the University of Toronto throughout its history, often sharing expertise and resources.^[2] The museum was originally under the direct control and management of the University of Toronto, until 1968, when it became an independent institution.^[3] Today, the museum is Canada's largest field-research institution, with research and conservation activities that span the globe.^[4]

With more than six million items and forty galleries, the museum's diverse collections of world culture and natural history are part of the reason for its international reputation.^[4] The museum contains notable collections of dinosaurs, minerals and meteorites, Near Eastern and African art, Art of East Asia, European history, and Canadian history. It also houses the world's largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale with more than 150,000 specimens.^[5] The museum also contains an extensive collection of design and fine arts. These include clothing, interior, and product design, especially Art Deco.

History is a never ending cycle of events, and as we move forward creating more history and expanding our knowledge, we discover more artifacts and conditions that should be documented and showcased in galleries and exhibitions.  Instead of constructing new museums in which to hold these conditions, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada decided to expand to better accommodate more history within its walls. Designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, the extension is known as the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal and was officially opened in June of 2007. With this extension the museum gained 100,000 square feet of new exhibition space, a new entrance and lobby, a street level retail shop, and three new restaurants. Studio Daniel Libeskind also renovated ten galleries in the existing historical building as part of this project.

                 

Buildings and architecture

Original building and eastern wing[edit]

The mosaic ceiling of the rotunda. The middle of the dome reads, "That all men may know His work."

Interior atrium linking the Philosopher's Walk wing with the Queen's Park wing

Designed by Toronto architects Frank Darling and John A. Pearson,^[19] the architectural style of the original building is Italianate Neo-Romanesque, popular throughout North America until the 1870s. The structure is heavily massed and punctuated by rounded and segmented arched windows with heavy surrounds and hood mouldings. Other features include applied decorative eave brackets, quoins and cornices.

The eastern wing facing Queen's Park was designed by Alfred H. Chapman and James Oxley. Opened in 1933, it included the museum's elaborate art deco, Byzantine-inspired rotunda and a new main entrance. The linking wing and rear (west) façade of the Queen's Park wing were originally done in the same yellow brick as the 1914 building, with minor Italianate detailing. However, the Queen's Park facade of the expansion broke from the heavy Italianate style of the original structure. It was built in a neo-Byzantine style with rusticated stone, triple windows contained within recessed arches, and different-coloured stone arranged into a variety of patterns. This development from the Roman-inspired Italianate to a Byzantine influenced style reflected the historical development of Byzantine architecture from Roman architecture. Common among neo-Byzantine buildings in North America, the facade also contains elements of Gothic Revival in its relief carvings, gargoyles and statues. The ornate ceiling of the rotunda is covered predominantly in gold back-painted glass mosaic tiles, with coloured mosaic geometric patterns and images of real and mythical animals.

Writing in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1933, A. S. Mathers said of the expansion: "The interior of the building is a surprise and a pleasant one; the somewhat complicated ornament of the façade is forgotten and a plan on the grand manner unfolds itself. It is simple, direct and big in scale. One is convinced that the early Beaux Arts training of the designer has not been in vain. The outstanding feature of the interior is the glass mosaic ceiling of the entrance rotunda. It is executed in colours and gold, and strikes a fine note in the one part of the building which the architect could decorate without conflicting with the exhibits."^[20]

The original building and the 1933 expansion have been listed as heritage buildings of Toronto since 1973.^[21] In 2005, a major renovation of the heritage wings saw the galleries made larger, windows uncovered, and the original early-20th-century architecture made more prominent. The exteriors of the heritage buildings were cleaned and restored. The restoration of the 1914 and 1933 buildings was the largest heritage project underway in Canada.^[22] The renovation also included the newly restored Rotunda with reproductions of the original oak doors, a restored axial view from the Rotunda west through to windows onto Philosophers' Walk, and ten renovated galleries comprising a total of 90,000 square feet (8,000 m²).^[23]

In the master plan designed by Darling and Pearson in 1909, the ROM took a form similar to that of J.N.L. Durand's ideal model of the museum (published in the early 19th century). It was envisioned as a square plan with corridors running through the centre of the composition, converging in the middle with a domed rotunda. Overall, it referenced the upper-class palaces of the 17th and 18th centuries, and aimed at having a strong sense of monumentality. All the architectural elements—the deep cornice, decorative top, eave brackets—add to this strength that the ROM possessed, as it was purely a structure with the function of collecting, but not for exhibiting.^[24]

Curatorial centre

Designed by Toronto architect Gene Kinoshita, with Mathers & Haldenby, the curatorial centre forms the southern section of the museum. Completed in 1984, it was built during the same expansion as the former Queen Elizabeth II Terrace Galleries which stood on north side of the museum. The architecture is a simple modernist style of poured concrete, glass, and pre-cast concrete and aggregate panels.

The curatorial centre houses the museum's administrative and curatorial services, and provides storage for artifacts that are not on exhibit.

In 2006, the curatorial centre was renamed to Louise Hawley Stone Curatorial Centre in honor of the late Mrs. Louise Hawley Stone. Mrs. Stone devoted herself to the ROM throughout her life and she donated a number of artifacts and various collections to the museum. In her will, she transferred $49.7 million (Cdn) to the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust which was created to help with the upkeep of the building and to acquire new artifacts.^[25]

The Crystal

"The Crystal", new entrance of the ROM

Interior of the Crystal

The new main entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum, Daniel Libeskind's The Crystal, first opened in 2007.^[26] The Deconstructivist crystalline-form is clad in 25 percent glass and 75 percent aluminium sitting on top of a steel frame. The Crystal's canted walls do not touch the sides of the existing heritage buildings, used to close the envelope between the new form and existing walls. These walls act as a pathway for pedestrians to safely travel across "The Crystal".

The building's design is similar to some of Libeskind's other works, notably the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre, and the Fredric C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum.^[27] The steel framework was manufactured and assembled by Walters Inc. ofHamilton, Ontario. The extruded anodized aluminium cladding was fabricated by Josef Gartner in Germany; the only company in the world that can produce the material. The company also provided the titanium cladding for Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.^[22]

The overall aim of The Crystal is to provide openness and accessibility, seeking to blur the lines between the threshold linking the public area of the street and the more private area of the museum. The goal is to act as an open threshold where people, as well as artifacts, animate the space. The main lobby is a three-story high atrium, named the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court.^[28] The lobby is overlooked by balconies and flanked by the J.P. Driscoll Family Stair of Wonders and the Spirit House, an interstitial space formed by the intersection of the east and west crystals, intended as a space of emotional and physical diversion.^[29]

On 1 June 2007, the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, attended the Architectural Opening of the "Michael Lee-Chin Crystal" This caused controversy because the public opinion had been divided concerning the merits of its angular design. On its opening, Globe and Mail architecture critic Lisa Rochon complained that "the new ROM rages at the world," was oppressive, angsty, and hellish, while others (perhaps championed by the architecture critic at the competing Toronto Star, Christopher Hume) hailed it as a monument.^[Some critics have gone as far as ranking it as one of the ten ugliest buildings in the world.^[] The project also experienced budget and construction time over-runs,^] and drew comparisons to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao for using so-called "starchitecture" to attract tourism.

In October 2007, the Lee-Chin Crystal was reported to have suffered from water leakage causing concerns due to the building's resilience to weather, especially in the face of the new structure's proximate first winter.^[35] Although a two-layer cladding system was incorporated into the design of the Crystal to prevent the formation of dangerous snow loads on the structure, past architectural creations of Daniel Libeskind, (including the Denver Art Museum) have suffered from weather-related complications.

Installation of the permanent galleries of the Lee-Chin Crystal began mid-June 2007, after a ten-day period when all the empty gallery spaces were open to the public.^[38] Within The Crystal, there is a gift shop, C5 restaurant lounge, a cafeteria, seven additional galleries and Canada’s largest temporary exhibition hall. The galleries added to the Crystal gave different aspects to the ROM; fascinating visuals, architectural artifacts and environment, art, correspondence between object and space, as well as stories within the visuals.^[39] The C5 restaurant Lounge is an award-winning designs firm lI BY IV Design Associated Inc.^[40]

While we are on the subject, here are some recent photos of the nearly completed extension to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada by Daniel Libeskind.

Part of a project called Rennaisance ROM and officially titled the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the wing opens on 2 June.

Below is a statement from Libeskind about the project and some facts and figures:
--
Renaissance ROM
Extension to the Royal Ontario Museum: The Crystal
The program of the Royal Ontario Museum provides a wonderful opportunity for dramatic new architecture and the creation of a great public attraction. The centrality of the site intensifies the profound relationship between history and the new, between tradition and innovation.

The historical buildings, complemented by forward-looking and bold architecture, form an ensemble which regenerates the urban significance of the Museum, solves the complex functional issues, and dramatically improves exhibitions, facilities, programming and amenities.

The Crystal, a structure of organically interlocking prismatic forms, asserts the primacy of participatory space and public choreography. Its image, function and structure turn this important corner of Toronto into a luminous beacon, a veritable showcase of people, events and objects, transforming the entire museum complex into a world-class destination.

The sculptural composition of architectural forms radiates from the centrality of the entrance crystal gathering at its centre, the urban vitality of Bloor Street. A new group entrance on Queen’s Park is provided, whilst Philosopher’s Walk is marked and enlivened by a new entrance to the panoramic restaurant up above.

The visitors enter into a spectacular atrium in which the two themes of the Museum, Nature and Culture, are distinctly thematized through the interlocking spatial volumes with tantalizing glimpses of the exhibitions above.
The entire ground level is unified into a seamless space from North to South and from East to West. The resulting clarity of circulation and access creates a transparency in which the inherited architecture and new construction form an equilibrium of imaginative unity.
The well-tested presentation of Nature and Culture are not only updated through interactive technology but are visualized within the true magic and power of physically built space. One could imagine this building as a place where the public is engaged in an ongoing drama rather than a static 19th century museum which suggests that nature has been conquered and culture has been archived.
This building tells a unique and a particular story which crystallizes ROM’s programmatic content and the singularity of the site. The Crystal transforms the secretive and fortress-like character of ROM, turning it into an inspired atmosphere dedicated to the resurgence of the Museum as the dynamic centre of Toronto.
Daniel Libeskind
Berlin, February 4, 2002
--
competition:2002
completion: 2007
Address:
Royal Ontario Museum 
100 Queen's Park 
Toronto, Ontario 
M5S 2C6 
Canada
Client:
Royal Ontario Museum
Technical Details:
Building Area: 18,600 sq.m. (186,000 sq.ft) 

Structure: 
Steel structure with aluminum cladding and glass facade. 

Services Provided: 
Complete architectural services from inception to completion, renovation of existing museum building. 

Building Cost: 
USD 94 Million 

Budget: 
USD 154 Million (including exhibition)
Credits:
Associate Architect: 
Bregman + Hamann Architects 

Structural Engineers: 
Arup
A competition finalist for the ROM in Toronto, the design proposes locating new galleries under a dramatic roof structure. A rooftop restaurant with stunning vistas surround the Great Court while a large public enclosure becomes a crossroads and event space within the city. Fossils are exhibited in a glass cylinder affectionately known as the “Dinosaur Jar” located along Bloor Street.