Toronto Royal Ontario Museum | ?m | ?s | Daniel Libeskind

Yup! And the displays that go into those galleries.

Opening in the Crystal next month:

* Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery
* Wirth Gallery of the Middle East

Opening in the Crystal in April:

* Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, Americas and Asia-Pacific
* Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costume
 
JoeRoe said:
Even allowing for the cheap labour costs of having the work done in India, $40 million seems a bit expensive for a modular, pre-fabricated, Temple-In-A-Box.
Modular, prefabricated? Well, yes, but it's fully and beautifully hand carved with no two pieces alike! Can you imagine a ROM addition carved with animals on walls, reptiles curling around columns, ceilings masterfully sculpted with magical iconography? (Native legends, Voyageurs' travels, ancient civilization narratives...) Let your imagination sore and try to picture what 600 Millions could have accomplished :mad:
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$600 Million? It would have been great to have had that kind of money to put into the ROM. Is that what you think they spent on it?

How much do you think 'taxpayers' put into it, by the way?

42
 
Does anybody know when and where the Egyptian gallery will be relocated to?

I was there yesterday and it's looking really tired. The rotary phone audio information points are pure cheese from the 80s. Many of the signs are faded beyond legibility and most important of all, the Egyptian galleries are typically the most popular along with the dinos, yet the ROM's current Egyptian gallery is very small by international measures.
 
The Egyptian galleries are staying put. I heard some time ago that he ROM's recently acquired mummy cover will be displayed at the entry point from those galleries to the Crystal.
 
Well, I hope that they're at least refurbishing the space. It's the last of the popular galleries remaining in the old ROM style of false ceilings and walls.

New cases, new signs and a cleaner appearance is necessary. I doubt they would fix the entire museum and leave this put in its state of disrepair.

The central old wing on that floor (connecting the Egyptian gallery on one side and the Greek on the other) is empty now. I wonder what's going here.
 
I agree with you, MetroMan, about the need to refresh the Egyptian galleries. They lead into the Crystal's Middle East and South Asia galleries that will open soon. Then, across the Crystal, you're in the new Africa, Americas and Asia-Pacific gallery. Then you'll walk into the East Wing ( 1933 ) which houses the existing European Collections galleries at the north end and the existing History of Style galleries at the south end. That links up with the central wing, which will get the new 20th Century Design gallery and the new Byzantium gallery. Then you're back in the West Wing ( 1914 ) with the Egyptians again! This wing will also get a new gallery for Rome and a new gallery for Africa:Nubia.

The Crystal is essentially a link designed to create this circular traffic flow on the third floor cultures galleries, and below it on the natural history floor. The Terrace galleries that were demolished prevented this logical approach to presenting the story that the ROM's collections hold.
 
I understand what JR is saying. And for the record, "Temple in a box" is a cheap shot. I'm thrilled that an exquisite mandir (rather than a Vegas cartoon) has been assembled in Toronto. But I travelled to India a half dozen times so maybe it's special to me and meaningless to everyone else (who is not Hindu).

I believe the rant is also not uncommon on UT. Usually characterized as the "cheapening". So perhaps one could wonder... is it possible to build an urban masterpiece in modern vernacular... that embraces this kind of care/perfection?

TD Centre might qualify. Not hand-carved but built in all its minimalist glory with no shortcuts. City Hall almost made it. Royal Bank is not well-loved on this forum but they slapped the real gold on.

Go ahead and name a building in the last decade with the same uncompromising devotion to the design or spirit intended.

Even one that wasn't hand-carved.
 
JoeRoe:

Our politicians and politically appointed bureaucrats as usual grab the ball and run, like it or not. It's all part of our great democratic deficit.
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Oh please, the politician didn't have much of a say over the design of the ROM. Beyond that, the ROM architectural selection process is probably the MOST open of the big 6 - and if people vote by their feet, Libeskind's design would have been the winner given the sheer turnout to his ROM design public lecture. And before we talk about "taxpayers" paying for the project - yeah, the glorious 1/3 of the total cost - enough to pay for the portion you'd like - restoration of the heritage 1914 and 1932 wings, the low-e glass, sunshades and the glass display cases by Glasbau Hahn. Don't cheapen the term "democratic deficit" - it refers to actual governance and policy making at the highest levels, not selection of an architect for a museum.

Darkstar:

There's a great 1970s washroom somewhere in the ROM.
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Ground floor south end of the Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery, in the curatorial block.

3D:

Go ahead and name a building in the last decade with the same uncompromising devotion to the design or spirit intended
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Behnish Architects/aA's CCBR, for one.

AoD
 
The Egyptian gallery is actually my favorite from the "old" ROM. It was well-lit compared to the dark Roman, Byzantine and Islam galleries. It contains the best architectural models on exhibit at the ROM, and the video on the Great Pyramid was a great early piece of virtual reality!
 
JoeRoe said:
Sorry Alvino, but I don't subscribe to the modern architecture narrative of our cultural glitterati. Look at the crap it has produced in the past eighty years.
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You mean you'd prefer the narrative reconfigured in this direction? Judging by what you're expressing, you'd adore it if the Toronto-Dominion Centre was remodelled or ripped down on behalf of that kind of reactionary dreck...
 
JoeRoe said:
Can you imagine a ROM addition carved with animals on walls, reptiles curling around columns, ceilings masterfully sculpted with magical iconography? (Native legends, Voyageurs' travels, ancient civilization narratives...) Let your imagination sore and try to picture what 600 Millions could have accomplished :mad:
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"Sore" is right.

Thorsell deals with JoeRoe
 
I noticed today that there were several fat grey poles installed along the sidewalk on the ROM's north facade. One of them had a camera on it, and they all had some sort of integrated light...does anybody know what these are for? They will be very ugly if some flags or banners aren't going on them!
 
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