Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Whenever I've dropped by during a snowstorm, the place looks like a huge iceberg. The upward-angled cladding appears to be working exactly as intended in retaining the heaviest snowfalls.
CanadianNational
Senior Member
/\ That's quite true, US. It looks pretty imposing in a whole new way with the snow cover on it. I think "The Iceberg" might have been a better name for the addition than "The Crystal". At least it feels that way to me.
As for the icicles, that's not too bad for this thingie's first winter fully assembled - and arguably the heaviest Toronto winter since 1939 - in addition to also having no mini-avalances, cracks, leaks, floods, heating woes or loading problems. Not bad at all.
I think given what we've been through this year, some icicles hanging off the corner isn't the worst thing that could happen. They can always send someone outside to knock 'em down with a pole.
I'd like the building to be elementally theoretically perfect, but if this is as close as we get to a real practical failure of the structure to perform, this is hardly a catastrophe.
Toronto. Winter. Big Deal.
As for the icicles, that's not too bad for this thingie's first winter fully assembled - and arguably the heaviest Toronto winter since 1939 - in addition to also having no mini-avalances, cracks, leaks, floods, heating woes or loading problems. Not bad at all.
I think given what we've been through this year, some icicles hanging off the corner isn't the worst thing that could happen. They can always send someone outside to knock 'em down with a pole.
I'd like the building to be elementally theoretically perfect, but if this is as close as we get to a real practical failure of the structure to perform, this is hardly a catastrophe.
Toronto. Winter. Big Deal.
Dan416
Senior Member
I'd love to know how Christopher Hume would design a building that's perfect for Toronto's climate.
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Those who can't do, teach. ;-)
Irishmonk
Senior Member
and those who can't teach write for the Star.
ProjectEnd
Superstar
Was by today. The ice is gone but the green barriers remain.
urbandreamer
recession proof
If I was ROM director here's what I'd do:
Acknowledging the Crystal theme and flawed concept, instead of industrial-style barriers warning of overhanging icicles, I'd install giant Martini glasses ready to catch the ice! Bonus: get a Vodka sponser on board to pay the repair bills.
See how bright I am? (Edit: you mean drunk
Acknowledging the Crystal theme and flawed concept, instead of industrial-style barriers warning of overhanging icicles, I'd install giant Martini glasses ready to catch the ice! Bonus: get a Vodka sponser on board to pay the repair bills.
See how bright I am? (Edit: you mean drunk
CityPlaceN1
Senior Member
Best post of the day. Of course I'm rather drunk myself.
yyzer
Senior Member
It appears that Conde Nast magazine has voted the ROM Crystal one of the "Seven New Architectural Wonders of the World"...this was also the mainpage lead item on Yahoo this morning...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080324/ap_tr_ge/travel_superlatives_architectural_wonders
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080324/ap_tr_ge/travel_superlatives_architectural_wonders
Tewder
Senior Member
It's interesting that in such a short little blurb they should comment on the public reaction here to the Crystal. Were all those other buildings universally received by the people? Is Toronto really that square...er boxy?
lordmandeep
Banned
the building is much better in the inside.
Really modern and new and spacious.
Really modern and new and spacious.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I'm booked for some of the curators' talks tied to the opening of the Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific galleries on April 5th. Anyone else going? The dino talk in December was informative. When Textiles and Costumes opens on the 16th the Crystal will be fully installed, and then it's back to renovating the earlier wings ...
One of the ROM's oddest quirks was caused by Chapman and Oxley's design for the 1933 addition. While their linking wing to the 'H' extends the floor-levels of the second and third floors of the original 1914 wing eastwards, steps down were required to reach the floor-levels of their addition - because the ceilings below were lower. This occurs at the double stairwell ( where the big totem poles are ). That's why the west side of the second floor of the Crystal required stairs up to reach the 1914 wing, and the east side of the third floor of the Crystal required stairs down to reach the 1933 wing.
One of the ROM's oddest quirks was caused by Chapman and Oxley's design for the 1933 addition. While their linking wing to the 'H' extends the floor-levels of the second and third floors of the original 1914 wing eastwards, steps down were required to reach the floor-levels of their addition - because the ceilings below were lower. This occurs at the double stairwell ( where the big totem poles are ). That's why the west side of the second floor of the Crystal required stairs up to reach the 1914 wing, and the east side of the third floor of the Crystal required stairs down to reach the 1933 wing.
adma
Superstar
Cumulus: er, Nordborg, Denmark?
Burj Dubai: are you kidding?
Wembley: out in nowheresville (and the people would rather rag on the logo than on the stadium)
New Museum: fuhgeddaboudit, it's Bowery. (Maybe if it replaced CBGBs...)
Kogod: too internal/institutional/DC, insufficiently in-your-face.
Red Ribbon: are you kidding?
TO City of Light
Active Member
With such a staggering display of architectural and contemporary cultural knowledge, I am sure the editors of Conde Nast would be interested in your choices for the "Seven New Architectural Wonders of the World".
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
From the Post:
Magazine considers Crystal a global gem
Seven Wonders
Matthew Liebenberg , National Post
Published: Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the ROM's steel and glass addition that has won more acclaim internationally than at home, has been picked as one of the seven new wonders of the architecture world by Conde Nast Traveler.
William Thorsell, the Royal Ontario Museum chief executive who virtually willed the project into being, said yesterday he was not surprised the travel magazine took note.
"It's the subject of a lot of conversation around the world," he said. "A lot of people around the world know about the Crystal."
Thomas Payne, founding partner at Toronto architecture firm KPMB Architects, was surprised the Crystal made the list.
"My list wouldn't include it," he said. "This is the commodification of architecture, where the expression of the architect dominates all. It's not about an architecture that's struggling to deal with its context."
The Crystal is the creation of New York-based architect Daniel Libeskind, who sketched the early concept on a napkin after seeing the gem and mineral collection during a family wedding at the ROM.
Mr. Payne believes it happened in the opposite way.
"Libeskind knew what he wanted to do," he said. "He actually had this concept and then he went to look for the crystals. He found them and that's how the crystal metaphor was created, I believe."
The magazine acknowledges the ''exuberantly beveled'' Crystal has its local critics, ''But others say the aggressively decontructionist addition is just the shock of the new that this slow-to-change city needs.''
It added: ''Museum-goers, too, have been captivated: Some have scaled the inside of windows angling over the street and have left footprints on the exterior walls.''
Other critics, including Robert Ouellette in the National Post, noted the Crystal's similarity to the Denver Art Gallery's Frederic C. Hamilton Building, an earlier Libeskind project. But Libeskind's role in the reconstruction of Ground Zero in Manhattan assured the Crystal would grab attention, and it has.
"Many people come up to me on the sidewalks and throw their arms around me and thank me for it, particularly younger people," Mr. Thorsell said yesterday. "Some people come by and yell at me that it's horrible, it's a crime."
Despite his views about the Crystal design, Mr. Payne said the city's half-dozen new cultural projects, including Jack Diamond's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Frank Gehry's rethink of the Art Gallery of Ontario and KPMB's own Gardiner Museum reno, together form a cultural renaissance.
"They're a collection of new elements of the city that will make it a better place for people to live and to enjoy culture."
Mr. Thorsell said projects such as the Crystal provide a critical mass of more creative and risky artistic works.
"Toronto has fallen quite far behind in the physical development of the city at many levels," he said. "Public space are largely degraded and we have had very little really inspired efforts at architecture, public or private sector, in Toronto for many years."
---
WONDERFUL?
Seven wonders of architecture, as chosen by Conde Nast Traveler in April issue: - The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum - Burj Dubai, the Dubai building that has bested the CN Tower as the world's tallest structure - Cumulus hall in Nordborg, Denmark - London's new Wembley Stadium - The New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan - The Smithsonian's Kogod Courtyard in Washington, D.C. - Red Ribbon bench in Qinhuangdao, China.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=0346bc80-37bf-42bc-9bd7-7b869eda5e16&k=58822
_________________________________________________________________
I am just as surprised by ROM appearing on the list - considering half, if not all the entries can be populated by the Olympic buildings in China alone.
That said, I found Payne's comments a bit distrubing - if all the buildings in the so called cultural renaissance shares the same "Toronto Style" vocabulary, I can assure you there is absolutely no chance of any of them appearing on that list. Not that it really matters, of course.
AoD
Magazine considers Crystal a global gem
Seven Wonders
Matthew Liebenberg , National Post
Published: Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the ROM's steel and glass addition that has won more acclaim internationally than at home, has been picked as one of the seven new wonders of the architecture world by Conde Nast Traveler.
William Thorsell, the Royal Ontario Museum chief executive who virtually willed the project into being, said yesterday he was not surprised the travel magazine took note.
"It's the subject of a lot of conversation around the world," he said. "A lot of people around the world know about the Crystal."
Thomas Payne, founding partner at Toronto architecture firm KPMB Architects, was surprised the Crystal made the list.
"My list wouldn't include it," he said. "This is the commodification of architecture, where the expression of the architect dominates all. It's not about an architecture that's struggling to deal with its context."
The Crystal is the creation of New York-based architect Daniel Libeskind, who sketched the early concept on a napkin after seeing the gem and mineral collection during a family wedding at the ROM.
Mr. Payne believes it happened in the opposite way.
"Libeskind knew what he wanted to do," he said. "He actually had this concept and then he went to look for the crystals. He found them and that's how the crystal metaphor was created, I believe."
The magazine acknowledges the ''exuberantly beveled'' Crystal has its local critics, ''But others say the aggressively decontructionist addition is just the shock of the new that this slow-to-change city needs.''
It added: ''Museum-goers, too, have been captivated: Some have scaled the inside of windows angling over the street and have left footprints on the exterior walls.''
Other critics, including Robert Ouellette in the National Post, noted the Crystal's similarity to the Denver Art Gallery's Frederic C. Hamilton Building, an earlier Libeskind project. But Libeskind's role in the reconstruction of Ground Zero in Manhattan assured the Crystal would grab attention, and it has.
"Many people come up to me on the sidewalks and throw their arms around me and thank me for it, particularly younger people," Mr. Thorsell said yesterday. "Some people come by and yell at me that it's horrible, it's a crime."
Despite his views about the Crystal design, Mr. Payne said the city's half-dozen new cultural projects, including Jack Diamond's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Frank Gehry's rethink of the Art Gallery of Ontario and KPMB's own Gardiner Museum reno, together form a cultural renaissance.
"They're a collection of new elements of the city that will make it a better place for people to live and to enjoy culture."
Mr. Thorsell said projects such as the Crystal provide a critical mass of more creative and risky artistic works.
"Toronto has fallen quite far behind in the physical development of the city at many levels," he said. "Public space are largely degraded and we have had very little really inspired efforts at architecture, public or private sector, in Toronto for many years."
---
WONDERFUL?
Seven wonders of architecture, as chosen by Conde Nast Traveler in April issue: - The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum - Burj Dubai, the Dubai building that has bested the CN Tower as the world's tallest structure - Cumulus hall in Nordborg, Denmark - London's new Wembley Stadium - The New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan - The Smithsonian's Kogod Courtyard in Washington, D.C. - Red Ribbon bench in Qinhuangdao, China.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=0346bc80-37bf-42bc-9bd7-7b869eda5e16&k=58822
_________________________________________________________________
I am just as surprised by ROM appearing on the list - considering half, if not all the entries can be populated by the Olympic buildings in China alone.
That said, I found Payne's comments a bit distrubing - if all the buildings in the so called cultural renaissance shares the same "Toronto Style" vocabulary, I can assure you there is absolutely no chance of any of them appearing on that list. Not that it really matters, of course.
AoD