A
AndrewJM3D
Guest
I wonder if we can expect the same from the AGO?
I wonder if we can expect the same from the AGO?
B
building babel
Guest
Until the ROM starts giving free admission all the time, buying a membership is a good deal - if, like me, you go often: I've seen the Italian exhibition three times. Sometimes I drop by for half an hour or so, to see a few favourite items. Collectively, we own all this stuff and it's nice to get to know it.
Workers were scaling the building this afternoon like mountaineers on ropes, drilling and adding brackets to support the metal framing that will support the final cladding, which they won't start installing for another couple of months at least.
Workers were scaling the building this afternoon like mountaineers on ropes, drilling and adding brackets to support the metal framing that will support the final cladding, which they won't start installing for another couple of months at least.
J
jmacmillan
Guest
But the Gardiner Ceramic Museum, which used to charge on Friday nights, is now free. It's just across the street. Come on down! err over!
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
From the Star:
It's all about space and connections
ROM behind schedule, but coming on strong
December 26, 2006
Chris Hume
When the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal opens in June at the Royal Ontario Museum, the building itself will be the main exhibit.
Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind, the $250 million addition and remake will provide the venerable institution with a whole new face and much more space, about 50 per cent more.
These days, however, the Crystal remains a construction site. Though the project is six months behind schedule, huge progress is being made. Just last week, the first few pieces of aluminum cladding were bolted into place. Though there will be many windows in the Crystal, the bulk of the exterior façade will be metal once work has been completed in March. But before that can happen, the lower level of insulation must be added, a slow and painstaking process that has taken much longer than anyone expected.
Many passersby have mistaken this sub-cladding for the final exterior covering, and have not been impressed by what they've seen. Patience! This is no ordinary building and the crews putting it together have been negotiating steep learning curves as well as steep roofs.
In fact, the cladding had to be manufactured in Germany; there are no Canadian companies that produce materials with such precision.
In any case, the Crystal is now watertight and inside work can continue at full speed. These days, workmen are pouring the epoxy floor in the Weston Gallery, two floors below street level. One of the largest exhibition halls in Canada, it will house the big temporary shows – blockbusters – that draw big audiences.
Above, where the new lobby rises gently from Bloor St., a new public space is under construction. Libeskind's sharply angled "crystals" reach out over the sidewalk to provide a sheltered area below. The amount of room will surprise people; the new lobby, entrances and shop are located on what was a fenced-off lawn. With it and the 1970s terraces gone, a sizable chunk of space has come available.
After June, visitors will enter the museum from Bloor and proceed south past the usual features – box offices, coat check and store – and into Currelly Hall in the original 1931 building, the old Armour Court.
The most striking element in the new lobby will be Spirit House, a "void" that reaches from top to bottom of the Crystal, intercepted only by numerous bridges on all floors. ROM CEO and president William Thorsell describes the Spirit House as "a place of quiet contemplation." When complete, the space will be animated by a sound sculpture now being created by Canadian composer John Oswald. It will include sounds both natural and manmade, reflecting the ROM's double mandate of science and culture.
The Spirit House is one of those architectural features that could only have come from the brain of Daniel Libeskind. More than any other architect working today, he understands the narrative power of architecture. He has demonstrated, most notably in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, that he can tell stories through the design of his buildings. The ROM's very Piranesian void offers not just a means of visual orientation, but a sense of connection and a place of repose and reflection.
That's why Thorsell has decided the Crystal will open empty, as did the Jewish Museum. He insists that "its pure and naked forms" should be available for us to see and appreciate before they are taken over by artifacts from the museum's collection. It is a wonderful idea and if the Berlin experience is any indication, thousands of people will show up to marvel at the building.
They won`t be disappointed. More than anything, the new ROM is about spaces, the quality of the rooms and the connections between them. The old notion of the museum as a series of discrete "black boxes," each isolated from the rest, has given way to fresh ideas of free-flowing space full of interior balconies, stairwells and open areas.
And although conservative Torontonians worry about whether Libeskind's addition will respect the original wings, they can rest assured. Indeed, new and old meet quite exquisitely in what Thorsell nicely calls "the most beautiful kiss in Canadian architecture."
He is referring to the fact that the Crystal never intrudes upon existing stone façades; the two touch, of course, they have to, but there's a clear sense of where one begins and the other ends.
And because the portions of the old exterior walls are now indoors, visitors will be able to admire their magnificent carved surfaces as never before.
Despite some confusion about transparency – some expected the entire Crystal would be glass, which was never the case – there are enough windows to provide views in and out of the building. Passersby will look up to see dinosaurs, haute couture and African objects; visitors indoors will look out to previously unseen vistas of Bloor St. and the rooftops of Toronto.
In other words, the ROM will be fully engaged in the life of the city. It will also sit at the very centre of the new cultural hub of Toronto. With the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art to the east, the Royal Conservatory of Music directly west, both splendidly remade, the ROM will attract unprecedented energy to the neighbourhood and up the stakes for the surrounding area.
Already major changes are planned for the north side of Bloor, with two new condos in the works. There are still buildings that should be torn down and replaced, but that process has started.
The only wrong note so far is the University of Toronto's very ordinary, even banal, rebuilding of Varsity Stadium just west on the south side of Bloor. How sad that U of T would have entered into such an ill-considered and poorly designed project after having set such a high architectural standard elsewhere on its campus.
Mostly though, Libeskind's Crystal will allow the ROM to more fully realize its vast potential. It began as one of those grand institutions that harkens back to the days when museums were an integral part of any city that considered itself civilized. Then it became a Disney-like learning and entertainment centre, where parents and baby-sitters took kids on rainy days.
Now it will be a museum again, and because of that, more truly entertaining than ever.
AoD
It's all about space and connections
ROM behind schedule, but coming on strong
December 26, 2006
Chris Hume
When the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal opens in June at the Royal Ontario Museum, the building itself will be the main exhibit.
Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind, the $250 million addition and remake will provide the venerable institution with a whole new face and much more space, about 50 per cent more.
These days, however, the Crystal remains a construction site. Though the project is six months behind schedule, huge progress is being made. Just last week, the first few pieces of aluminum cladding were bolted into place. Though there will be many windows in the Crystal, the bulk of the exterior façade will be metal once work has been completed in March. But before that can happen, the lower level of insulation must be added, a slow and painstaking process that has taken much longer than anyone expected.
Many passersby have mistaken this sub-cladding for the final exterior covering, and have not been impressed by what they've seen. Patience! This is no ordinary building and the crews putting it together have been negotiating steep learning curves as well as steep roofs.
In fact, the cladding had to be manufactured in Germany; there are no Canadian companies that produce materials with such precision.
In any case, the Crystal is now watertight and inside work can continue at full speed. These days, workmen are pouring the epoxy floor in the Weston Gallery, two floors below street level. One of the largest exhibition halls in Canada, it will house the big temporary shows – blockbusters – that draw big audiences.
Above, where the new lobby rises gently from Bloor St., a new public space is under construction. Libeskind's sharply angled "crystals" reach out over the sidewalk to provide a sheltered area below. The amount of room will surprise people; the new lobby, entrances and shop are located on what was a fenced-off lawn. With it and the 1970s terraces gone, a sizable chunk of space has come available.
After June, visitors will enter the museum from Bloor and proceed south past the usual features – box offices, coat check and store – and into Currelly Hall in the original 1931 building, the old Armour Court.
The most striking element in the new lobby will be Spirit House, a "void" that reaches from top to bottom of the Crystal, intercepted only by numerous bridges on all floors. ROM CEO and president William Thorsell describes the Spirit House as "a place of quiet contemplation." When complete, the space will be animated by a sound sculpture now being created by Canadian composer John Oswald. It will include sounds both natural and manmade, reflecting the ROM's double mandate of science and culture.
The Spirit House is one of those architectural features that could only have come from the brain of Daniel Libeskind. More than any other architect working today, he understands the narrative power of architecture. He has demonstrated, most notably in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, that he can tell stories through the design of his buildings. The ROM's very Piranesian void offers not just a means of visual orientation, but a sense of connection and a place of repose and reflection.
That's why Thorsell has decided the Crystal will open empty, as did the Jewish Museum. He insists that "its pure and naked forms" should be available for us to see and appreciate before they are taken over by artifacts from the museum's collection. It is a wonderful idea and if the Berlin experience is any indication, thousands of people will show up to marvel at the building.
They won`t be disappointed. More than anything, the new ROM is about spaces, the quality of the rooms and the connections between them. The old notion of the museum as a series of discrete "black boxes," each isolated from the rest, has given way to fresh ideas of free-flowing space full of interior balconies, stairwells and open areas.
And although conservative Torontonians worry about whether Libeskind's addition will respect the original wings, they can rest assured. Indeed, new and old meet quite exquisitely in what Thorsell nicely calls "the most beautiful kiss in Canadian architecture."
He is referring to the fact that the Crystal never intrudes upon existing stone façades; the two touch, of course, they have to, but there's a clear sense of where one begins and the other ends.
And because the portions of the old exterior walls are now indoors, visitors will be able to admire their magnificent carved surfaces as never before.
Despite some confusion about transparency – some expected the entire Crystal would be glass, which was never the case – there are enough windows to provide views in and out of the building. Passersby will look up to see dinosaurs, haute couture and African objects; visitors indoors will look out to previously unseen vistas of Bloor St. and the rooftops of Toronto.
In other words, the ROM will be fully engaged in the life of the city. It will also sit at the very centre of the new cultural hub of Toronto. With the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art to the east, the Royal Conservatory of Music directly west, both splendidly remade, the ROM will attract unprecedented energy to the neighbourhood and up the stakes for the surrounding area.
Already major changes are planned for the north side of Bloor, with two new condos in the works. There are still buildings that should be torn down and replaced, but that process has started.
The only wrong note so far is the University of Toronto's very ordinary, even banal, rebuilding of Varsity Stadium just west on the south side of Bloor. How sad that U of T would have entered into such an ill-considered and poorly designed project after having set such a high architectural standard elsewhere on its campus.
Mostly though, Libeskind's Crystal will allow the ROM to more fully realize its vast potential. It began as one of those grand institutions that harkens back to the days when museums were an integral part of any city that considered itself civilized. Then it became a Disney-like learning and entertainment centre, where parents and baby-sitters took kids on rainy days.
Now it will be a museum again, and because of that, more truly entertaining than ever.
AoD
B
building babel
Guest
How interesting. The workman I spoke to at the ROM last week said the final layer wouldn't go on for another two months. Just shows to go ya, never trust anything a construction worker tells ya ...
H
hamilton905
Guest
^^^....and always trust articles written by the Star!
B
building babel
Guest
The workman said they'd be installing the final cladding at the south end of the building first, which I'd also heard from someone at the ROM Foundation.
The pretty Christmas card I got from them this year was an impression of what the completed building will look like during a snowfall.
The pretty Christmas card I got from them this year was an impression of what the completed building will look like during a snowfall.
R
roch5220
Guest
ROM was in the most recent Wallpaper, 2 pages.
Something about when a city needs a cultural kick start, you can count on Daniel Libeskind. Got the impression that they thought Toronto is culturally dead.
Something about when a city needs a cultural kick start, you can count on Daniel Libeskind. Got the impression that they thought Toronto is culturally dead.
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
papamanjr:
Hard to say, since it's from a webcam - see for yourself.
EDIT: Webcam shot this afternoon.
AoD
Hard to say, since it's from a webcam - see for yourself.
EDIT: Webcam shot this afternoon.
AoD
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
I think there are panels of the cladding installed on the crystal 5 (the southernmost crystal housing the restaurant above the Philosopher's Walk wing).
AoD
AoD
P
papamanjr
Guest
and?? does it look okay?
M
MetroMan1000
Guest
Damn.. I caught this update while it's dark, the webcam is useless until the morning. :rolleyes
Nevertheless, if the panels are being installed, it's nice to know since I can hold off with patience for a week or so and then walk over myself. By then, there should be something to see.
Nevertheless, if the panels are being installed, it's nice to know since I can hold off with patience for a week or so and then walk over myself. By then, there should be something to see.
S
samsonyuen
Guest
I'm excited about seeing the Crystal from top to bottom empty...
A
adma
Guest
Hey, why not? That's how people got acquainted with Berlin's Jewish Museum, after all...
P
papamanjr
Guest
I guess I'm just going to have to go have a drink atop the park hyatt to catch a glimpse of that corner.