I guess you don't understand the reality of budgets and the fact that the ROM decided it wanted as much as the budget could allow to be spent on the building, as the plaza could be redone a couple of years later, while the building suffers no such ease of replacement.
A big part of designing for a client is creating something that is appropriate in terms of cost... you shouldn't have to take a grand "vision" and hack it down to a cheaper version. The architect is, in my opinion, responsible for creating something that falls within budget yet STILL performs all its functions well. As I will explain down below, one of the important considerations in a project are the spaces being created, and that includes outdoor spaces.
You may not like my opinion, but please don't make judgments on my understanding of budgets until you grasp the concept yourself, and please don't pass off your own theories as fact. (Unless you want to find me a source from the time of the redevelopment that explains that this was a phased plan all along.)
Regardless, I stand by my opinion that it's ridiculous after the millions and millions of dollars they put into the Renaissance ROM renovation and expansion, after all the admission cost increases for the public, it's going to take another 3 million dollars on top of those costs to make a well-considered space that people want to spend time in.
Architecture Lesson #1: Architecture is, fundamentally, the creation of spaces. I'll say it again: Architecture is not just about BUILDINGS. It's about SPACES (both open and enclosed). I can't agree for a minute that it's appropriate to pour your money into a building and simply overlook the public space you create out front of it. The open and outdoor spaces in any project are part-and-parcel of the entire design. The failure in the design of the public space out front of the ROM reinforces for me just how out-of-whack the priorities in this project were. They wanted a flashy BUILDING but overlooked the space around it.
Maybe the people behind the Renaissance ROM truly
did want a high-quality public space to be part of the design. Perhaps they were just star-struck by Libeskind and entrusted that his plaza space would turn out to be an interesting and engaging space that the public would want to spend time in... something that would give back to the city. In any case, I don't see many positive qualities about the space they created there, and apart from some darker shapes set into the paving, it doesn't seem to relate to the building in any way.
I look forward to seeing what the new landscaping looks like, in any case. Certainly an exciting opportunity to really change that intersection and the experience of the site.
I like the current plaza. People mingle there, and there's always a busker in the summer whose music bounces off the crystal in unusual directions. I'd welcome something bolder and more memorable, but how much can they really achieve with that relatively small space?
The possibilities are endless. There are all sorts of intriguing ways that space (which is actually quite generous, IMO) could play off the ROM and its surroundings... you could play with the elevations and the topography of the space for one. (But that's usually the direction I go in when I think about the creation of / carving out of spaces.)