Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
Fantastic, Tomms - How did you get up there?
tomms
Active Member
smuncky
Senior Member
i would like to know this as well, since you've had some amazing shots from areas where us normal folk can't get to.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
MWB:
Actually, I am still waiting to see what your idea of spectacular is - you seem to be able to offer crticisms of everything but unable to suggest alternatives to anything. Now that's one thing I don't have to admire.
AoD
Actually, I am still waiting to see what your idea of spectacular is - you seem to be able to offer crticisms of everything but unable to suggest alternatives to anything. Now that's one thing I don't have to admire.
AoD
Riverdale Rink Rat
Senior Member
ROM is spectacular, full stop.
Totally agree AoD -- that was a gratuitous swipe. Whether you like it or not is a different thing, but the Crystal is nothing short of spectacular. I have 8 and 11 year-old girls and we do the annual pass thing. We've never had a friend in from out of town that hasn't done the 'eyes widened, head snapped around' thing as we drive by, then the 'open-mouth awe' thing when they see the dinosaurs for the first time.
For me -- the 'spirit room' is silly. The dinos/5th floor/4th floor of the crystal are awesome, and the revamp of the First Peoples gallery fabulous. The Stair of Wonders is... a staircase.
My favourite part of all, though, is how the lobby of the crystal makes the old ROM an artifact of its own. The museum becomes a museum piece!
Totally agree AoD -- that was a gratuitous swipe. Whether you like it or not is a different thing, but the Crystal is nothing short of spectacular. I have 8 and 11 year-old girls and we do the annual pass thing. We've never had a friend in from out of town that hasn't done the 'eyes widened, head snapped around' thing as we drive by, then the 'open-mouth awe' thing when they see the dinosaurs for the first time.
For me -- the 'spirit room' is silly. The dinos/5th floor/4th floor of the crystal are awesome, and the revamp of the First Peoples gallery fabulous. The Stair of Wonders is... a staircase.
My favourite part of all, though, is how the lobby of the crystal makes the old ROM an artifact of its own. The museum becomes a museum piece!
Mystery White Boy
Banned
Continuity for one in the tone of the metal. It's in such disarray. The shape is a little ridiculous but if it had nice cladding it could look alright. Or if it was cladd in just glass even like it was supposed to be originally.
And for the other guy. Of course it's going to turn heads. It's completely different than anything in the city. And obviously kids are going to like it. But they don't see the flaws in it. They just see a fun, wacky shape.
Stupid kids!
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Tewder
Senior Member
TOinTO
Active Member
I made my first trip to the Crystal recently with my 2 small kids.
Although I find the Crystal interesting from the outside, the inside was annoying. We spent most of our time on the second floor. The exhibit areas are too much dominated by the funny angles of the Crystal. The galleries don't flow. The Jurassic period gallery angles from its entrance back towards the washrooms. Then you need to backtrack to continue down the hallway to the Cretaceous period. There are no natural walking circuits through either gallery. The layout is simply catering to the difficult shape of the building rather than to the best presentation of the material.
Walls go up at obtuse angles, so, to discourage climbing there are rope barriers all over the place. Kids still climb the walls, though. So the walls are all dirty with footprints.
There's an sea-turtle like fossil hanging beyond a balcony overlooking the entrance hall. But you can't get get close to it, or overlook the hall because the balcony wall is at an obtuse angle and so, for safety, there's a rope barrier in the way. It just doesn't work.
Worst of all, try getting a kid who's gotta go from the children's discovery area on the west side, all the way back through the Dino exhibit to the washroom on the east side. Yeah, a straight hallway would be nice. Or better yet, how about a washroom on the West side? Near the children's area? Genius architecture.
The Spirit Room is just spin on wasted space. There is nothing intriguing or innovative about it.
As for the dinosaur exhibit itself...
When I first saw the dinosaurs at the ROM, in the mid-seventies, there were just bone assemblies in display cases. Very Victorian feeling. Then they redesigned the display and put the dinosaurs in scenes attempting to depict their habitat. The rooms were dark, the dinosaurs and their world were in the spotlight. It was colourful and, for a kid, awesome. Now we're back to the old style bones in display cases. Just that now, the displays seem to be haphazardly arranged.
Also, isn't that fake Tyrannosaurus new? There isn't a fossil in it. The ROM has never had a T. Rex in their collection and I don't recall it being there before.
Although I find the Crystal interesting from the outside, the inside was annoying. We spent most of our time on the second floor. The exhibit areas are too much dominated by the funny angles of the Crystal. The galleries don't flow. The Jurassic period gallery angles from its entrance back towards the washrooms. Then you need to backtrack to continue down the hallway to the Cretaceous period. There are no natural walking circuits through either gallery. The layout is simply catering to the difficult shape of the building rather than to the best presentation of the material.
Walls go up at obtuse angles, so, to discourage climbing there are rope barriers all over the place. Kids still climb the walls, though. So the walls are all dirty with footprints.
There's an sea-turtle like fossil hanging beyond a balcony overlooking the entrance hall. But you can't get get close to it, or overlook the hall because the balcony wall is at an obtuse angle and so, for safety, there's a rope barrier in the way. It just doesn't work.
Worst of all, try getting a kid who's gotta go from the children's discovery area on the west side, all the way back through the Dino exhibit to the washroom on the east side. Yeah, a straight hallway would be nice. Or better yet, how about a washroom on the West side? Near the children's area? Genius architecture.
The Spirit Room is just spin on wasted space. There is nothing intriguing or innovative about it.
As for the dinosaur exhibit itself...
When I first saw the dinosaurs at the ROM, in the mid-seventies, there were just bone assemblies in display cases. Very Victorian feeling. Then they redesigned the display and put the dinosaurs in scenes attempting to depict their habitat. The rooms were dark, the dinosaurs and their world were in the spotlight. It was colourful and, for a kid, awesome. Now we're back to the old style bones in display cases. Just that now, the displays seem to be haphazardly arranged.
Also, isn't that fake Tyrannosaurus new? There isn't a fossil in it. The ROM has never had a T. Rex in their collection and I don't recall it being there before.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I think T. rex is a cast from a museum in Montana or somewhere. The new galleries also include casts made from skeletons in the ROM's own collection - the Giant Ground Sloth, for example, is one that they excavated and a cast of it is also on display in a Florida museum. The ROM is also a research institution, so it isn't possible to put all of the original pieces on display.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
There are also washrooms on Levels 1, 2 and 3 of the linking wing.
H
Hydrogen
Guest
No one would clad a whole museum wing in glass. I'm sure there never was such a plan at the ROM. You want to protect your collection from the elements - including the long-term effects of sunlight. Also, all that glass would be incredibly expensive.
Riverdale Rink Rat
Senior Member
Hmmm...
... nothing like not being able to find the washrooms to ruin a visit. With the reptile gallery closed right now, it's true that you need to leave the kids' area to find a loo.
I totally disagree with your opinion of the bones gallery, though. 'Can't get close to the sea turtle.' WTF?? It's hanging 5 feet from the gallery in open air -- you want to touch it or what? It looks like it's swimming, and it's 100% viewable. Did you think the same about the pterodactyls? ("too high. couldn't get my grubby mudhooks on 'em")
And... the periods are mixed up? hahahahahaha... they're millions of years apart. Who cares what order they're in? Although I must admit it TOTALLY pisses me off that the armour is not left of the Roman period -- not AT ALL in order. <giggle>
Love my ROM. Hate the fact that it's so ridiculously spectacular that there are WAY too many people in my space.
... nothing like not being able to find the washrooms to ruin a visit. With the reptile gallery closed right now, it's true that you need to leave the kids' area to find a loo.
I totally disagree with your opinion of the bones gallery, though. 'Can't get close to the sea turtle.' WTF?? It's hanging 5 feet from the gallery in open air -- you want to touch it or what? It looks like it's swimming, and it's 100% viewable. Did you think the same about the pterodactyls? ("too high. couldn't get my grubby mudhooks on 'em")
And... the periods are mixed up? hahahahahaha... they're millions of years apart. Who cares what order they're in? Although I must admit it TOTALLY pisses me off that the armour is not left of the Roman period -- not AT ALL in order. <giggle>
Love my ROM. Hate the fact that it's so ridiculously spectacular that there are WAY too many people in my space.
MetroMan
Senior Member
Glass is "incredibly expensive"? I guess you haven't seen enough glass clad skyscrapers.. or the new AGO Dundas wing for that matter. It's a "whole museum wing in glass" in fact.
The winning proposal from Libeskind was entirely clad in glass with what looked like sandblasted/frosted sections to diffuse the light. As a photographer, I understand how that would have worked but I also acknowledge that it would have been very difficult to engineer the skeleton of the building in a way that it could get hidden by a glass façade.
Nonetheless, the way the museum was built allows for the cladding to be interchangeable with the times – regardless if that was or not the intention. The cladding isn't a fundamental or structural part of the building. The skin directly below it serves the purpose of sealing in the building. The cladding we have now is simply "floating above".
At some point, they can replace the extruded aluminum siding with opaque or semi-opaque or even reflective glass slats.
I think that they're going to look at correcting some of the problems or bad material decisions. It's going to take a couple more years of massaging and polishing to get it right.
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Few observations:
To be clear: glass window (to see through) - also used as structure for the roofing - would be expensive. Otherwise you could not use glass continuously as a window on a structure like the new wing of the ROM all over at little cost.
Are you absolutely sure that the first proposal by Libeskind was actual glass, or did it just look as if it were glass? There's a difference. So far as I know, there was no specific material selected during the period of time when the first models were shown. I don't think Libeskind has ever glassed in any of his museum projects.
As to whether I've seen glass skyscrapers, yes I have. Your dislike of the present cladding of the ROM need not be translated into a derogation of my statements.
To be clear: glass window (to see through) - also used as structure for the roofing - would be expensive. Otherwise you could not use glass continuously as a window on a structure like the new wing of the ROM all over at little cost.
Are you absolutely sure that the first proposal by Libeskind was actual glass, or did it just look as if it were glass? There's a difference. So far as I know, there was no specific material selected during the period of time when the first models were shown. I don't think Libeskind has ever glassed in any of his museum projects.
As to whether I've seen glass skyscrapers, yes I have. Your dislike of the present cladding of the ROM need not be translated into a derogation of my statements.