T
tudararms
Guest
...and to be fair, shouldn't the Crystal be considered in its entire context that includes the other wings of the museum, the restoration, and the museum's location which sounds quite different from Denver?
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
From Reading Toronto, cross-posted at National Post:
2006 10 27
The ROM Crystal Vs The Denver Art Gallery
When a building as radically different as the ROM's Crystal juts into our visual consciousness, the natural instinct is to think it is unique to our city. With the opening on Oct. 7 of Denver's new art gallery addition, also by architect Daniel Libeskind, some Torontonians are wondering if we got a copy of a crystal, not the original.
It is important to remember the Denver Art Gallery's Frederic C. Hamilton Building began its life years ahead of the ROM's Michael Lee Chin Crystal. Libeskind was already designing the Denver building before he dashed off the infamous napkin drawings as his entry to the ROM expansion competition.
So, it is no surprise both buildings adopt a language that Libeskind first brought to world attention with his Jewish Museum in Berlin. He continues to use his personal design style in proposals for the World Trade Center in New York and many others.
Why not? After all, we all know a Frank Gehry building when we see one. Why can't the ROM Crystal be part of a series of architectural works by one of the world's more innovative building designers?
Still, some say they feel cheated. Maybe the experience is like being a child waiting expectantly for the newest bike at Christmas, only to wake up and see every kid on the block riding one.
Novelty is serious business in the world of art tourism. A city's unique architectural treasures attract visitors. Those people bring tourist dollars. We need them.
How important are those dollars? In New York, marketing firm Audience Research & Analysis says that the Museum of Modern Art generates about $2-billion in spending in that city. That is billion with a ''b.'' Culture is big business.
What happens to those dollars when almost overnight an attraction's uniqueness is seemingly undercut by the opening of another, familiar looking building? Will this lessen tourists' desire to visit our city?
The ROM's CEO, William Thorsell, says no, it is a mistake to look at two different buildings from ''35,000 feet'' and conclude they are the same.
''There are some superficial resemblances,'' says Thorsell, ''but they are two very different buildings. If you look at Libeskind's buildings up close, each is a unique solution to its context and program.''
''The Denver gallery is much different than the ROM Crystal. Their building stands alone on a side street, while ours engages the existing building on one of Toronto's major streets. Theirs is less transparent.''
Thorsell is confident enough to speculate that, ''Many people would find it a great thing to go back and forth between the two buildings to see how different and unique they are.''
It is easy to agree. Toronto is in the process of constructing buildings that will define the city's culture for decades to come. Diamond and Schmidt's opera house led the way, along with KPMB's Gardiner Museum renovation. Both are successful and both are unique in that they respond to local site conditions and the occupants' programs. They are not object buildings like Libeskind's, but they are exceptional nonetheless.
The ROM Crystal will be a landmark in the city. It will attract tourists, but it is not the reason visitors will return to this great institution. What will enchant visitors and keep them excited will be the people -- the curators, researchers, scholars, support staff and artists -- whose interpretation of history and the world will find a focus inside Libeskind's Crystal or Gehry's AGO. We saw evidence of this when the ROM opened its renovated galleries late last year. They are well considered. The curation is strong. They work.
The value of these new cultural symbols goes well beyond their physical form. Sure, a lot of investment rides on their popular success as design objects, but like the kid at Christmas will eventually learn, the real benefit comes from getting out and having access to parts of the world never before accessible. The benefit of those experiences will remain long after the novelty of the Crystal's form recedes into the background.
This story is also published in today's National Post
Posted by R Ouellette on 10/27 at 07:47 AM
AoD
2006 10 27
The ROM Crystal Vs The Denver Art Gallery
When a building as radically different as the ROM's Crystal juts into our visual consciousness, the natural instinct is to think it is unique to our city. With the opening on Oct. 7 of Denver's new art gallery addition, also by architect Daniel Libeskind, some Torontonians are wondering if we got a copy of a crystal, not the original.
It is important to remember the Denver Art Gallery's Frederic C. Hamilton Building began its life years ahead of the ROM's Michael Lee Chin Crystal. Libeskind was already designing the Denver building before he dashed off the infamous napkin drawings as his entry to the ROM expansion competition.
So, it is no surprise both buildings adopt a language that Libeskind first brought to world attention with his Jewish Museum in Berlin. He continues to use his personal design style in proposals for the World Trade Center in New York and many others.
Why not? After all, we all know a Frank Gehry building when we see one. Why can't the ROM Crystal be part of a series of architectural works by one of the world's more innovative building designers?
Still, some say they feel cheated. Maybe the experience is like being a child waiting expectantly for the newest bike at Christmas, only to wake up and see every kid on the block riding one.
Novelty is serious business in the world of art tourism. A city's unique architectural treasures attract visitors. Those people bring tourist dollars. We need them.
How important are those dollars? In New York, marketing firm Audience Research & Analysis says that the Museum of Modern Art generates about $2-billion in spending in that city. That is billion with a ''b.'' Culture is big business.
What happens to those dollars when almost overnight an attraction's uniqueness is seemingly undercut by the opening of another, familiar looking building? Will this lessen tourists' desire to visit our city?
The ROM's CEO, William Thorsell, says no, it is a mistake to look at two different buildings from ''35,000 feet'' and conclude they are the same.
''There are some superficial resemblances,'' says Thorsell, ''but they are two very different buildings. If you look at Libeskind's buildings up close, each is a unique solution to its context and program.''
''The Denver gallery is much different than the ROM Crystal. Their building stands alone on a side street, while ours engages the existing building on one of Toronto's major streets. Theirs is less transparent.''
Thorsell is confident enough to speculate that, ''Many people would find it a great thing to go back and forth between the two buildings to see how different and unique they are.''
It is easy to agree. Toronto is in the process of constructing buildings that will define the city's culture for decades to come. Diamond and Schmidt's opera house led the way, along with KPMB's Gardiner Museum renovation. Both are successful and both are unique in that they respond to local site conditions and the occupants' programs. They are not object buildings like Libeskind's, but they are exceptional nonetheless.
The ROM Crystal will be a landmark in the city. It will attract tourists, but it is not the reason visitors will return to this great institution. What will enchant visitors and keep them excited will be the people -- the curators, researchers, scholars, support staff and artists -- whose interpretation of history and the world will find a focus inside Libeskind's Crystal or Gehry's AGO. We saw evidence of this when the ROM opened its renovated galleries late last year. They are well considered. The curation is strong. They work.
The value of these new cultural symbols goes well beyond their physical form. Sure, a lot of investment rides on their popular success as design objects, but like the kid at Christmas will eventually learn, the real benefit comes from getting out and having access to parts of the world never before accessible. The benefit of those experiences will remain long after the novelty of the Crystal's form recedes into the background.
This story is also published in today's National Post
Posted by R Ouellette on 10/27 at 07:47 AM
AoD
A
Archivistower
Guest
Nice article, makes a good point. About this, though:
In New York, marketing firm Audience Research & Analysis says that the Museum of Modern Art generates about $2-billion in spending in that city. That is billion with a ''b.'' Culture is big business.
How can people regurgitate this stuff without laughing? Of course it's untrue, is the MOMA going to pay money to a firm for an analysis that will show that they have only a small impact on the city. I think the figure above is self-evidently ridiculous, and is significantly padded to include every single spending dollar of every tourist who went to MOMA (as if they went to the city only for MOMA). I would believe that there are people who would go to New York specifically to go to MOMA and who might not have taken a trip to the city even if MOMA were not there, but not 2B worth.
In New York, marketing firm Audience Research & Analysis says that the Museum of Modern Art generates about $2-billion in spending in that city. That is billion with a ''b.'' Culture is big business.
How can people regurgitate this stuff without laughing? Of course it's untrue, is the MOMA going to pay money to a firm for an analysis that will show that they have only a small impact on the city. I think the figure above is self-evidently ridiculous, and is significantly padded to include every single spending dollar of every tourist who went to MOMA (as if they went to the city only for MOMA). I would believe that there are people who would go to New York specifically to go to MOMA and who might not have taken a trip to the city even if MOMA were not there, but not 2B worth.
B
building babel
Guest
The Denver building has fewer windows than the ROM Crystal - which is covered with slashes of glass that will offer peek-a-boo glimpses of dinosaur bones etc. inside. But the lack of windows might be more successful in drawing attention to the sculptural qualities of the Denver structure. The Denver nighttime shots show the subtle play of light and shadow nicely, but I think the ROM's sleek cladding will be more attractive than Denver's kinda-puffy-goosedown-winter-jacket look.
B
building babel
Guest
I see that all the third floor galleries in the west wing, and the Italian Arts and Design: The 20th Century exhibition, are temporarily closed "due to mechanical issues" and the Museum expects to open them on Friday.
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
I could be wrong, but it seems that the final cladding might be going up on the circulation crystal:
www.rom.on.ca/renaissance/hyatt.php
AoD
www.rom.on.ca/renaissance/hyatt.php
AoD
S
Sir Novelty Fashion
Guest
Where are you looking, AoD? On top?
On an unrelated note, I had an interesting insight into why it's taking so long to build. Last Friday - evidently, a lazy Friday - I spent close to an hour standing outside the Bob Miller Book Room across from the ROM, watching five workers and two cranes trying to wrestle a single, 20-footish length of the cladding framework into place. (I mean the trellice that sits above the crystal's structural beams, that the sub-cladding goes on top of.)
It was incredible. They were clearly improvising, scrambling up girders and down girders, trying to figure out how to hoist this metal into position under the crystal's overhang, then somehow hold it there while it gets bolted into place. Up went the crane, and down again, dangling the metal from one position, then the next. The workers kept trying to hold it from one angle, then moving their cherry-picker to try another, while others hung from nooks in the crystal frame. They looked like movers trying to get a piano up a narrow stairway, straining for grip and jostling for position, and a lot of "no, no, here, let me try it this way."
I tend to forget that for all the cranes and heavy equipment on a construction site, even the biggest buildings are essentially built by hand. That's pretty cool.
On an unrelated note, I had an interesting insight into why it's taking so long to build. Last Friday - evidently, a lazy Friday - I spent close to an hour standing outside the Bob Miller Book Room across from the ROM, watching five workers and two cranes trying to wrestle a single, 20-footish length of the cladding framework into place. (I mean the trellice that sits above the crystal's structural beams, that the sub-cladding goes on top of.)
It was incredible. They were clearly improvising, scrambling up girders and down girders, trying to figure out how to hoist this metal into position under the crystal's overhang, then somehow hold it there while it gets bolted into place. Up went the crane, and down again, dangling the metal from one position, then the next. The workers kept trying to hold it from one angle, then moving their cherry-picker to try another, while others hung from nooks in the crystal frame. They looked like movers trying to get a piano up a narrow stairway, straining for grip and jostling for position, and a lot of "no, no, here, let me try it this way."
I tend to forget that for all the cranes and heavy equipment on a construction site, even the biggest buildings are essentially built by hand. That's pretty cool.
B
building babel
Guest
Earthlings. They're amazing.
3
3Dementia
Guest
GB I think you're looking at a huge sorta horizontal swath of glass with a grey reflection. I didn't know this big glazing piece was in the crystal... atrium I guess.
Talked with ye ole construction guys a few days ago and when I asked the cladding was... they replied "Germany".
Talked with ye ole construction guys a few days ago and when I asked the cladding was... they replied "Germany".
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
3D:
Nope, there isn't any glazing on the top of the circulation crystal (the one closest to the rotunda at the Queen's Park wing). There seems to be strips of material that wasn't present before.
AoD
Nope, there isn't any glazing on the top of the circulation crystal (the one closest to the rotunda at the Queen's Park wing). There seems to be strips of material that wasn't present before.
AoD
3
3Dementia
Guest
I see where you're looking now.
I'm betting those are windows or some kind of hardware that is gradually appearing in various spots on creature.
I'm betting "Germany" is the final Jeopardy answer.
I'm betting those are windows or some kind of hardware that is gradually appearing in various spots on creature.
I'm betting "Germany" is the final Jeopardy answer.
T
thenay
Guest
I know some find the new ROM look ugly or weird but I like it 
Looking good to me on how its coming along
Looking good to me on how its coming along
A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
From the Star:
Husky empire mogul funds ROM centre
$12M gift for biodiversity showpiece
Nov. 7, 2006. 06:24 AM
MARTIN KNELMAN
ARTS COLUMNIST
Robert Schad, a German immigrant who founded the Husky empire in a Toronto garage 53 years ago, is donating $12 million to the Royal Ontario's Renaissance ROM project, the Toronto Star has learned.
The 79-year-old Schad — who arrived in this country with $25 and a reference letter from Albert Einstein, a family friend — has made a deal for the ROM to build and run a national biodiversity centre. That's in keeping with the fact that environmental issues have been his top concern in recent years.
The word, biodiversity, refers to the amazing varieties of life forms on the planet — and the fact that some of them are threatened with extinction or are in danger of disappearing. Biodiversity scientists and researchers study the relationships between organisms and their environment.
The centre — to go on the second floor, near Philosopher's Walk — will be incorporated within the spectacular expansion and redesign of the museum by celebrated architect Daniel Libeskind.
The gift will be announced today at a news conference where Schad will speak, along with Renaissance ROM capital campaign chair Hilary Weston and museum CEO William Thorsell.
Born in Germany to a banker and a doctor, Schad studied mechanical engineering in Germany before moving to Canada in 1951. Two years later, he began building a snowmobile (called a Huskymobile) in his garage. The business expanded to making tools, dies, fixtures and high-speed molding machines.
One year ago, Schad stepped down as president and chief executive officer of Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd., making way for his chosen successor and long-time vice-president, John Galt.
More than half the $12 million will go towards the ROM building campaign. The remainder will be used for an endowment fund to operate the new centre.
This contribution represents one of the largest gifts made by any individual to Toronto's cultural renaissance buildings.
AoD
Husky empire mogul funds ROM centre
$12M gift for biodiversity showpiece
Nov. 7, 2006. 06:24 AM
MARTIN KNELMAN
ARTS COLUMNIST
Robert Schad, a German immigrant who founded the Husky empire in a Toronto garage 53 years ago, is donating $12 million to the Royal Ontario's Renaissance ROM project, the Toronto Star has learned.
The 79-year-old Schad — who arrived in this country with $25 and a reference letter from Albert Einstein, a family friend — has made a deal for the ROM to build and run a national biodiversity centre. That's in keeping with the fact that environmental issues have been his top concern in recent years.
The word, biodiversity, refers to the amazing varieties of life forms on the planet — and the fact that some of them are threatened with extinction or are in danger of disappearing. Biodiversity scientists and researchers study the relationships between organisms and their environment.
The centre — to go on the second floor, near Philosopher's Walk — will be incorporated within the spectacular expansion and redesign of the museum by celebrated architect Daniel Libeskind.
The gift will be announced today at a news conference where Schad will speak, along with Renaissance ROM capital campaign chair Hilary Weston and museum CEO William Thorsell.
Born in Germany to a banker and a doctor, Schad studied mechanical engineering in Germany before moving to Canada in 1951. Two years later, he began building a snowmobile (called a Huskymobile) in his garage. The business expanded to making tools, dies, fixtures and high-speed molding machines.
One year ago, Schad stepped down as president and chief executive officer of Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd., making way for his chosen successor and long-time vice-president, John Galt.
More than half the $12 million will go towards the ROM building campaign. The remainder will be used for an endowment fund to operate the new centre.
This contribution represents one of the largest gifts made by any individual to Toronto's cultural renaissance buildings.
AoD
M
MetroMan1000
Guest
... so how much of the remaining $20M ( which was to be raised by building the condo) is left?
I hope we see somebody else funding a South crystal after the current project is completed.
I hope we see somebody else funding a South crystal after the current project is completed.
B
building babel
Guest
Alvin: This time last year I checked into the ROM's plans for the 2nd floor of their west wing for you, and reported back that they intended to expand their renovations there; now we have some concrete evidence. I'm going there tomorrow, so will see if I can find out more.