Nice to hear some positive feedback about it. It's so easy to get caught up in the nuts and bolts details (literaly) that we end up missing the bigger picture.
 
Also, I think Libeskind deserves some credit for pulling off something fairly subtle in the building's orientation, perhaps inspired by the Reference Library: Toronto is a fairly rectilinear city, like most North American towns, and the brilliance of both of those buildings is in changing the relationship of a person inside them to the city from being a rectilinear one (as it no doubt would remain had, say, KPMB done the ROM) to a diagonal one, providing a new perspective. It's an interesting effect.

Also, anyone else notice the cues Libeskind took from the Bata Museum further west? The entrances are so similar. I guess Ray Moriyama definitely did influence him, huh?

That said, again, I love KPMB! Which is why, with the RCM, Gardiner, ROM, and One Bedford, combined with the Woodsworth tower and Bata museum further west make that stretch of Bloor(ish) one of the most concentrated sites of interesting contemporary architecture on the planet.
 
I think the traffic flow will be more circular - in from the 1914 west and 1933 east wings, through the north end of the Crystal ( which skirts the Court below ), back out to the east and west wings, and south through those wings to the original linking wing that joins them.

Thematically, the Crystal galleries are logically connected to those earlier wings: on Level 3 for instance the Egyptian Gallery ( 1914 wing ) flows into the Middle East and South Asia ( Crystal ) galleries; on Level 2 the Birds ( 1914 wing ) flows into the Mammals and Dinosaurs ( Crystal ) galleries. Also, the original linking wing galleries have been rearranged so that Byzantium ( linking wing ) flows into the new Rome Gallery ( 1914 wing ) etc. Thus are the museum's displays more logically arranged.

When the Sigmund Samuel Gallery opens next month it will consolidate the ground floor of the 1933 wing as "all-Canadian" ( the First Peoples Gallery there opened at the end of 2005 ). When the Minerals and Gems, Gold, Mining, and Earth and Early Life Galleries open in 2008/09 on Level 2 of the 1933 wing it will provide a logical link to the Dinosaur Galleries ( Crystal ).
 
Nice pics.

Cool installation at the ROM, though I think the illuminations were far more impressive during the opening. I'm surprised they didn't include the opening weekend illuminations with the Darfur installation; with the eyes of the world on Toronto right now you'd think the museum would want to make the biggest splash possible.
 
From The Globe and Mail

Leaks, woes a smudge on Crystal's sparkle

VAL ROSS

October 3, 2007

Good thing it was a dry summer. The new Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto's most talked-about new edifice, leaks.

At least, it did leak. Water penetrated the north end of the long window of the C5 restaurant, and puddles have appeared near windows on the third and fourth floors.

The ROM's CEO, William Thorsell, pushed to open the new Daniel Libeskind-designed Crystal and the rest of the renovated ROM on June 1. As construction accelerated, the contractors responsible for installing the Crystal's cladding system warned that temporary seams around windows might leak. In August, they mopped up and repaired the problems.

As winter approaches, fingers are crossed that there will be no more puddles, and that the Crystal's cladding, designed to prevent it from turning into an avalanche-maker, will function as well in cold reality as it does in theory. But it's clear, four months into the Crystal's life, the new spaces pose huge challenges, and leaks are the least of them.

Far more daunting are the problems of mounting exhibits in the strange new spaces, ensuring public safety and budgeting for the new reality.

There are rumours that the Crystal's oddly shaped, difficult-to-access windows have increased window-cleaning costs by $200,000, a figure ROM's executive director of capital development and facilities, Al Shaikoli, disputes.

"But it is considerable," he admitted. "In the old days, our window-cleaning budget was next to nothing."

Safety issues are a surprise. "We didn't predict human behaviour," Mr Shaikoli said. On the June weekend of its grand, all-night opening, ROM staffers discovered that, particularly after the bars closed, visitors seemed more interested in the Crystal as a playground than as architecture. Staff were alarmed to see people crawling out on windows slanting over Bloor Street, apparently testing their strength.

"Mind you, these galleries were naked spaces," Mr. Shaikoli said. "Once they're filled with artifacts, people will be more respectful." Display cases will soon be installed in the paths of future adventurers.

Another discovery was a trail of footprints most of the way up a fourth-floor wall that rises at a 30-degree angle. "Probably a kid took a run at it," speculates Dan Rahimi, director of gallery development. Baseboards and stainless steel barriers are being installed to signal that a wall is a wall, even if it's not on the straight and narrow.

"One of our major bugbears was that William wanted everything open and accessible," says Janet Waddington, assistant curator of paleontology. "But you can't do that - the Toronto public is extraordinarily destructive."

Even in the old dinosaur galleries, says Ms. Waddington, people used to reach across railings to pat the prosaurolophus bones. In the ROM's Crystal dinosaur gallery, two ancient marine reptile skeletons, a pleiosaur and a mosasaur, have been suspended from an overhanging face of the Crystal (the ceiling is too high), which puts their irreplaceable old bones within arm's reach. By the time the gallery opens in December, a plinth or base underneath, surrounded with barriers, will keep the public's hands at bay. "It has been horrendous," said Ms. Waddington, "but very exciting."

The problem of installing artifacts in a space with no vertical walls challenged Hiroshi Sugimoto, the first artist to be exhibited in the ROM's fourth-floor Institute for Contemporary Culture. So, he designed a curving wall 4.3 metres high and 27.5 metres long, fitted with special lighting, to counteract the angular architecture. Total cost to the ROM: about $200,000. The wall was recently removed to make room for a new show of aboriginal contemporary art that opens on Saturday.

Special new display cases have been bought to match the galleries, some with trapezoidal shapes. As well, the renovation has opened the entire building, old and new parts, to more daylight, which risks bleaching museum artifacts. So the museum has acquired special blinds that filter out 96 per cent of ultraviolet light, as well as blackout blinds that block exterior light.

"Daniel didn't design this building based on the collections," said Mr. Rahimi. "We had to design the collections to go with the building. We have an aesthetic imperative - partly because the architecture is so strong."

*****

WATER BABIES

Denver Museum of Art

Daniel Libeskind had to have strips of the museum's titanium skin removed in April, less than six months after it opened, to repair winter water damage.

Vancouver Law Courts

A leak in the roof of Arthur Erickson's building prompted anonymous colleagues to kid him with the title Fifteen-Bucket Erickson. "Any building that has skylights, as many of mine do, is going to leak more than conventional roofs," he told a Globe reporter at the time. "All Phillip Johnston's and I.M. Pei's buildings with skylights leak. But the Bank of Canada doesn't leak, and neither does Roy Thomson Hall. The Law Courts here only had one leak last year, their first in a very long time."

National Gallery

of Canada

Now undergoing massive repairs, Moishe Safdie's mostly glass edifice used to drip on official functions. National Gallery director Pierre Théberge once commented, "When it rains on receptions of your potential donors, it's embarrassing, to say the least."

North York Civic Centre

Adamson Associates Architects' building had a glass roof that leaked into the lobby shortly after its gala opening in 1978. Val Ross
 
billy corgan said:
From The Globe and Mail
"One of our major bugbears was that William wanted everything open and accessible," says Janet Waddington, assistant curator of paleontology. "But you can't do that - the Toronto public is extraordinarily destructive."

Even in the old dinosaur galleries, says Ms. Waddington, people used to reach across railings to pat the prosaurolophus bones. In the ROM's Crystal dinosaur gallery, two ancient marine reptile skeletons, a pleiosaur and a mosasaur, have been suspended from an overhanging face of the Crystal (the ceiling is too high), which puts their irreplaceable old bones within arm's reach. By the time the gallery opens in December, a plinth or base underneath, surrounded with barriers, will keep the public's hands at bay. "It has been horrendous," said Ms. Waddington, "but very exciting."
Click to expand...

Hyperbole alert! Hyperbole alert!

The problem of installing artifacts in a space with no vertical walls challenged Hiroshi Sugimoto, the first artist to be exhibited in the ROM's fourth-floor Institute for Contemporary Culture. So, he designed a curving wall 4.3 metres high and 27.5 metres long, fitted with special lighting, to counteract the angular architecture. Total cost to the ROM: about $200,000. The wall was recently removed to make room for a new show of aboriginal contemporary art that opens on Saturday.
Click to expand...

Sugimoto's exhibition design showed just how good an imaginative answer of these extraordinary spaces can be.

Special new display cases have been bought to match the galleries, some with trapezoidal shapes.
Click to expand...

Good. I look forward to more experimentation!

42
 
The recently renovated main floor galleries in the original east and west wings contain mostly freestanding glass cases, with very few objects displayed against the walls, so I don't see what all the fuss is about with the sloping Crystal walls. The Crystal displays will sensibly employ the same design language as the rest of the Museum - they're all designed by Hayley Sharpe.
 
I was definitely worried about how this one would turn out but I have to say that its pretty striking. Not as good as other Liebskind projects but "killing ur heritage architecture" is always a problem with him...
 
I still would like to see the skin rethought in the future. Perhaps an opaque glass similar to the one used in the Pharmacy Building.
 
I approached Mr.Thorsell @ the ROM today and we had a chat.

I was very pleased with what he said.

I asked him if something big was planned for the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Court. I suggested a large dino since it would be visible from the new Dinosaur gallery. He liked the idea and said that the ROM is still getting used to all this new space and like the Stair of Wonders, many blank walls and floor space is available for the ROM to evolve and acquire artifacts for those spaces.

Still on the Stair of Wonders, I mentioned that I noticed poor craftsmanship, noting the rivets, the scratches, and the misalignments of the steel plates that adorn the walls. He said that they were going to look at each rivet and make sure it looks all good because "They have to leave it all clean and well done before they (the construction crew) leave" and added: "They leave in two weeks".

So there you have it: construction of the Crystal ends in two weeks. After that, it's all up to those installing the galleries to take it from there.

I'm confident that they're looking at all the details. One example is how they painted over the shiny main entrance walls and coloured them dark brown to go with the rest of the dark areas in the ROM. This actually makes the entrance stand out from the silver clad Michael Lee Chin Crystal. Previously, people had a hard time identifying the entrance.

I had so many questions and I didn't want to take up too much of his time, but even when I said good-bye, he continued the conversation and added much interesting info: he was eager to speak with the public which is a fine quality to have for somebody in his position. He could be up in his office somewhere and ignore the people who visit the museum, but he doesn't.

Can't wait for the new Canadian Gallery tomorrow and the Dino Gallery in the winter.
 
Hmm I just spoke with another ROM insider and that person said construction ends next summer. Not certain if that meant installation of exhibits or the building itself. Person said it will be in tiptop shape and that Grope'n Fail article was a superficial look at things as they appear to the public eye.
 
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