Royal Ontario museum, Toronto

Royal Ontario Museum, Canada

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is Canada's largest museum of world
culture and natural history. It is located in Toronto, Ontario and is one of
the largest museums in North America, attracting over one million visitors
every year. The museum is located north of Queen's Park in the University
of Toronto, with its main entrance facing Bloor Street.
Founded in 1912, the museum has maintained close relations with the
University of Toronto throughout its history, often sharing expertise and
resources. The museum was originally under the direct control and
management of the University of Toronto, until 1968, when it became an
independent institution. Today, the museum is Canada's largest fieldresearch institution, with research and conservation activities that span
the globe.
With more than six million items and forty galleries, the museum's diverse
collections of world culture and natural history are part of the reason for its
international reputation. The museum contains notable collections of
dinosaurs, minerals and meteorites, Near Eastern and African art, East
Asian art, European history, and Canadian history. It also houses the
world's largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale with more than
150,000 specimens. The museum even contains an extensive collection of
design and fine arts. These include clothing, interior, and product design,
especially Art Deco. -source
Source: Royal Ontario Museum, Canada - World full of Art
http://worldfullofart.blogspot.com/2012/11/royal-ontario-museumcanada.html#axzz3PpzDc5Gn

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Toronto, Canada
DATE
2007
STATUS
Completed
CLIENT
Royal Ontario Museum
BUILDING SIZE
100,000 sq.ft
DESCRIPTION
The extension to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), now named the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, is
situated at one of the most prominent intersections in downtown central Toronto. It is the largest
Museum in Canada and attracts more than a million visitors a year.
Its new name is derived from the buildings five intersecting metal-clad volumes, which are
reminiscent of crystalsinspired by the crystalline forms in the ROMs mineralogy galleries.
Libeskind created a structure of organically interlocking prismatic forms turning this important
corner of Toronto, and the entire museum complex, into a luminous beacon.
With the expansion, a new group entrance on Queens Park was created where visitors enter a
spectacular atrium in which the two themes of the Museum, Nature and Culture, are distinctly
showcased through intertwining staircases leading to the exhibitions above.
The entire ground level is unified into a seamless space with clarity of circulation and
transparency. The Crystal transforms the ROMs fortress-like character, turning it into an inspired
atmosphere dedicated to the resurgence of the Museum as the dynamic centre of Toronto.
The design succeeds in inviting glimpses up, down, into galleries and even from the street. The
large entrance atrium, the Gloria Hyacinth Chen Court, separates the old historic building from
the new, providing a nearly complete view of the restored faades of the historic buildings. The
Chen Court also serves as a venue space for all kinds of public events.
Opened in June 2007, the extension provides 100,000 square feet of new exhibition space, a
new entrance and lobby, a street level retail shop and three new restaurants. Studio Daniel
Libeskind also renovated ten galleries in the existing historical building as part of the project.
AWARDS

2009 XVII Concorso Internazionale Sistema dautore Metra, 2007 Ontario Steel Design
Awards Canada Institute of Steel Construction

http://libeskind.com/work/royal-ontario-museum/
http://buildipedia.com/aec-pros/featured-architecture/keeping-up-with-torontosevolving-architectural-identity

http://www.pbfphoto.com/royal-ontario-museum-at-night-in-toronto/