Additional renderings:
EXTERIOR3_OpenROM rendering, Courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects and the Royal Ontario Museum.jpg

EXTERIOR2_OpenROM rendering, Courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects and the Royal Ontario Museum.jpg

INTERIOR4_OpenROM rendering, Courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects and the Royal Ontario Museum.jpg

INTERIOR1_OpenROM rendering, Courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects and the Royal Ontario Museum.jpg

INTERIOR2_OpenROM rendering, Courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects and the Royal Ontario Museum.jpg
 
This is brilliant.

And the limited free access is a baby step in the right direction. One of the things I love most about London (UK) is free access to most museums... I would often take a quick detour through the British Museum before heading to another destination. So uplifting :) .
 
This is brilliant.

And the limited free access is a baby step in the right direction. One of the things I love most about London (UK) is free access to most museums... I would often take a quick detour through the British Museum before heading to another destination. So uplifting :) .

Agreed on both points.

When you look at the financials, nominally, ROM only needs to replace ~13M in admission fees (last fiscal year)

1707934635801.png


Source: https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default...io-museum-03312023-financial-statement-en.pdf

In practice, they also have a loss to cover in the range of 5.4M (2023 is the second column from the right)

So they need about 18.4M in alternate revenues/reduced expenses.

I would argue that not selling admissions, reduced cash handling etc. would save at least $500,000 per year, probably more. So probably 18M'ish.

A 100M endowment should be able to spin-off (after reinvesting for inflation) 4% per annum, or about 4M, so if we could just get some Canadian family with 20B in assets to spare 5% of their fortune......

There would be no need for admission prices, and some budget to spare.

***

Alternatively, Ontario could just increase its grant allocation by 18M which would be less than 0.01% of Ontario's budget.
 
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Alternatively, Ontario could just increase its grand allocation by 18M which would be less than 0.01% of Ontario's budget.
What was that!? I thought I just heard Doug choke on his afternoon coffee... 🙀
 
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UT's Craig White has an excellent piece on this up on the Front Page:


From this, we get an answer to @rdaner 's question about the Fountain.

"Hariri Pontarini have designed by reflecting pool and fountain with Dan Eusen of Waterarchitecture Inc. The pool may become a skating rink in the winter, but will create a sense of arrival and welcome outside the building year-round."
 
I think this is probably one of the best aspects of the project. it makes the existing design more honest, and perfectly represents the ROM’s plan to “open up”

“Steel girders that hold up the extraordinary Libeskind structure and which are currently hidden within walls will also be featured around the space, both expressing the engineering work that allows such avant garde architecture while also broadening the space. Ticketing for exhibitions and upper level galleries will be found in pocket areas off the main lobby.”
IMG_9099.jpeg
 
I think this is probably one of the best aspects of the project. it makes the existing design more honest, and perfectly represents the ROM’s plan to “open up”

“Steel girders that hold up the extraordinary Libeskind structure and which are currently hidden within walls will also be featured around the space, both expressing the engineering work that allows such avant garde architecture while also broadening the space. Ticketing for exhibitions and upper level galleries will be found in pocket areas off the main lobby.”
View attachment 540680

The render makes me assume the girders will be clad. Which they probably ought to be; but I do wonder if that will diminish their link to the structure in the eyes of the casual observer? Still, I quite like it myself.
 

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