Toronto Royal Ontario Museum | ?m | ?s | Daniel Libeskind

Admiral Beez said:
Since the moment I first saw the ROM's Crystal I thought to myself that one day in my lifetime they're going to have to replace the entire thing. I dislike the Crystal, they took a fine Edwardian, traditionally stout building and glued some glass rubbish on the side.
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It wouldn't have been so bad if it were all or mostly glass. It's the cheap looking aluminum siding that compromises it. That said, I think it's OK overall, not the spectacular piece of starchitecture it should have been.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Since the moment I first saw the ROM's Crystal I thought to myself that one day in my lifetime they're going to have to replace the entire thing. I dislike the Crystal, they took a fine Edwardian, traditionally stout building and glued some glass rubbish on the side.
Click to expand...

The ROM heritage buildings are not Edwardian. The Crystal is not structurally supported by the heritage buildings.
 
Let it be know, I for one, very much like this addition ... less the cracks of course ... in particular, I like it's integration with the already existing building and I don't in any way find it detracts from it.

There you go, I said it.

Any other closet ROM lovers, it's time to come out.
 
I've always been openly in support of the Crystal. I think it's actually rather dynamic and refreshing for a city that is obsessed with boxes. And given the choice, I actually like the ROM better than the AGO.

That's not to say it's perfect. There are obviously some areas for improvement, but those can be easily dealt with. There are some dead spaces and I'm not a huge fan of the staircase, but those can be fixed. I think the aluminum isn't all that bad, and I actually prefer the differing shade of grey over a solid grey colour. Yes, there should have been some more windows, but I'm not bothered by their absence.
 
On its own it isn't too bad, but I don't like the transition from old to new that much; it minimizes the importance of the older buildings too much, making them almost additions onto the new building. It's all right, but could have been better.
 
DHLawrence85 said:
On its own it isn't too bad, but I don't like the transition from old to new that much; it minimizes the importance of the older buildings too much, making them almost additions onto the new building. It's all right, but could have been better.
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I really doubt this could have been done. At least in a way that would make everyone happy ... at the end of the day, it's going to either detract from the original building, or it'll be too minimalist / conservative, depending on who you ask, the time of day (honestly, lighting makes a big difference), so on so forth ...

It's hard to fault safe / good architecture, Toronto has a lot of this ... think of many buildings in our core (less Scotia bank .. maybe) anyway, the point is, it's good that some controversy surrounds this project, I'm glad some of you don't like it, even hate it. To me it adds to it appeal and that's what sets it apart.
 
All of the cracks are typical of what you might see if the pressure plate supporting the glass was screwed on too tight. If this is the case, the problem would be attributed to installation error, not due to quality of materials and not due to movement of the frames.
 
urbandreamer said:
Well I did see a bunch of Palestinian protestors in front of it this afternoon.... You think they throw rocks here? (j/k btw, I'm neutral re: that dispute.)
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I'm sure someone can come up with a pun regarding glass houses here.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Since the moment I first saw the ROM's Crystal I thought to myself that one day in my lifetime they're going to have to replace the entire thing. I dislike the Crystal, they took a fine Edwardian, traditionally stout building and glued some glass rubbish on the side.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more!
 
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