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

Re: smooth

By the way, this would be a good time to remember the international competition that led to Libeskind being selected.

Does anybody have renderings of the other proposals? I remember some of them were quite nice although I was very excited that Libeskind was picked because Toronto was quite shy architecturally back then.... to think that now we have OCAD, a Libeskind and a Gehry...
 
Re: smooth

Liebeskind had a number of advantages, including the fact that his addition was actually the least destructive to the original building. Others, like the Bing Thom proposal, would have demolished both 1970's additions, as well as the old central wing. The Crystal leaves most of these intact.

None of the others would have been so iconic in and of themselves; though whether they would have done more to further the institution's quest to be iconic as a great museum is up in the air.
 
Re: smooth

Considering that most of the people I've spoken to already think that the "Crystal" is an eyesore, I would not be surprised if it's torn down at some future date. Maybe in a few years the novelty will wear out, and enough people will realize that it looks like the ROM has some sort of boxy cancer growing on the side.
Click to expand...
Ah, but by that logic, "enough people" would have realized that the walkways at Nathan Phillips Square were a useless concrete eyesore that had to go. Unfortunately (or not), as we've seen by the competition and its guidelines, they were the wrong kinds of "enough people"...
 
Re: smooth

Metro:

Bing Thom's proposal is on their website, I believe.

AoD
 
Re: smooth

Piece from Architectural Record on the leaking Denver Art Museum:

Repairs at Denver Art Museum Set to Begin
April 11, 2007

Now that snow has finally melted in the Mile High City, construction crews are preparing to start permanent repairs on the roof of the new Frederic C. Hamilton wing at the Denver Art Museum. The roof began leaking as a result of record-breaking snowfalls this winter.

After unveiling the long-awaited 146,000-sqaure-foot addition last fall, trustees, staff, and patrons thought they’d seen the last of construction crews for a while. But only weeks after the Hamilton wing’s grand opening on October 7, a massive storm dumped nearly two feet of snow and gave the new structure its first real test of severe weather. Much to their disappointment, museum officials discovered water leaking from the roof and skylights in the El Pomar Grand Atrium. This soaring, 120-foot-high space serves as the main lobby for the galleries and is best known for its sloped walls and a spiraling, four-story staircase.

The building’s architects, a joint venture between Studio Daniel Libeskind and Davis Partnership Architects, worked with teams from the construction firm M.A. Mortenson to inspect the atrium’s roof, which is composed of structural steel and a metal deck clad in titanium panels. As part of a temporary fix, crews removed elevated beam covers and applied an additional waterproofing layer.

But another series of big storms in December complicated matters, making it difficult for investigators to locate the leak’s source. Construction crews added extra waterproofing to a wall on the atrium’s roof that was designed to prevent snow and water from overflowing down onto the building’s entrance. They also removed some interior drywall to aid in monitoring water movement on the roof’s interior underside.

“The problem is primarily on the atrium roof and its skylights, where there are issues with condensation and leaking,†says Brit Probst, a principal and partner at Davis Partnership Architects. “The exact causes are still being investigated and won’t be fully known until the existing roof is removed.â€

Crews will likely replace much of the atrium’s existing roof, Probst adds. Though plans for a permanent solution are still in discussion, the museum hopes to have the problem resolved by the end of summer. The price tag for repairs is undisclosed at this time.

“It is absolutely unfortunate to have an issue, but I think we are lucky to have realized it at such an early point when all parties were still on-site and available to deal with it,†says Andrea Kalivas Fulton, a museum spokesperson.

Kelly Davidson
_________________________________________________

I am thankful that they actually tested the ROM cladding system at the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel lab at UWO.

AoD
 
That's nothing special that the system got tested, that's standard practice for almost any new building. There's another test centre up by the airport, and a couple down in the States.

And I'm sure that Denver's system was tested, too. Passing a test doesn't mean that the final product will pass. When they build the mock-ups they tend to go overkill, while the final installations are more likely to have cut corners.
 
I will preface this by saying that I have always liked the design of the crystal.

OK, that said, I am pleasantly surprized by what the results are. It doesnt matter who designed the ROM addition, whether it is all just to cash in on the current starchitect or not. The building is interesting.

I am most impressed by the pics of the inside.
 
Frank Lloyd Wright was always having problems with leaky roofs on his buildings. "If it didn't leak it wouldn't be a roof" he once said. I guess they don't call it falling water for nothing. Also, Bauhaus buildings were notoriously badly constructed - the Dessau building has had to be renovated several times because of water getting in. No doubt we'll have problems with the Crystal - a couple of the roof workmen I chatted to a few weeks ago certainly thought we would.

Will it be torn down and replaced one day? Never say never, especially in this town, with our record.
 
Considering how long the ROM crystal has taken to get constructed, I sure hope it doesn't have a similar problem as that Denver museum.
 
Actually, I think that while I'm sure Denver's cladding system was tested as was ours, the ROM crystal's precipitation flow system was a major part of the project.

I think it will hold up. If there were to be any problems with the cladding, these would have been seen by now since we've been through a major snowstorm and rain since the first skin was finished. The exterior skin is just really cosmetic.
 
I passed by the site again yesterday (sorry no photos) and am feeling optimistic again. I think the cladding is slowly coming together. The black window frames are also getting installed and they add some nice contrast and detail to the glass. I'm not too thrilled about the uppermost wedges that protrude through the central area roof though. Those sections look like a utility shed to me. Overall though, I think (hope) this building will be deemed a sucess. Fingers crossed.
 
For your information:


Event Calendar for the Opening of the New Lee-Chin Crystal Building

As the new Lee-Chin Crystal building will open soon, note the following:

May 31
Thursday, 6 pm - Museum closes to prepare for opening.

June 1* * * * * * * *
Friday - Museum closed to the public.
10 pm - "Big Bang" Party begins and lasts until 3 am. Tickets through the ROM website.

June 2* * * * * * * *
Saturday - Museum closed to the public.
9 am - Bloor Street closed to traffic - closed until midnight.
9:30 pm - opening ceremonies, as the Governor-General officially opens the building.
75 minute open air concert, finishing with the illumination of the building's façade.
This will be filmed for television broadcast.

June 3* * * * * * * *
About 12:30 am (earlier if possible), building opens to the public, and remains open, with FREE admission, until 6 pm.
Restaurants and Shop open to the public.
Special Exhibition on Level 2B open in the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall - "Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World, 1690 - 1850", running from June 3 - August 12, 2007.
Special Exhibition on Level 4 open in the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) - "Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History", running from June 3 to August 19, 2007.
New Architectural tours available, visiting all floors of the new building. If visitor traffic is too high to conduct a tour, this may be replaced by 'Ask Me' service, where guides will stand at strategic spots throughout the building to answer questions.
 
The uneven tone of the cladding was particularly evident late yesterday afternoon in overcast conditions - especially on the big fin you can see from the Gardiner Museum side of the street. One hopes it gets fixed, considering how many gloomy days we get.

Standing at the intersection of Bloor and Philosopher's Walk, the "turned-up" aspect to the leading edges of the cladding ( designed to break up snow and ice as it slides off ) is easy to see.
 
I originally got lost and posted this in the AGO thread... oops:

So today I was waiting for a train in Dundas Station and looked up at the ceiling. Guess what I saw? The ROM Cladding!

Ok so its not exactly the ROM cladding, but it looks similar and thats scary. Hopefully the ROM knows how to take care of it better than the TTC.
 
The same point was made on page 15 of this thread. There are so few points of similarity between the Crystal and anything else in Toronto that perhaps when we find one in the TTC analogy it is reassuring. I think people seek context when they encounter novelty.
 
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