The Michael
Lee-Chin Crystal - The Royal Ontario Museum
Bloor Street, Toronto, Canada
Architect
|
Daniel
Libeskind |
Date Built
|
2007
|
Location
|
Bloor
Street West and Queens Park
|
Description
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Without question the most
controversial building in downtown
Toronto is the Daniel Libeskind's
Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. It is
the centre-piece of a major
reconstruction of the Royal Ontario
Museum named after the person who
donated £30 million towards its
construction. The whole project,
which cost approximately $270 million,
included the construction of this
landmark Crystal building, as well as
upgrades to existing buildings and
galleries. The Crystal opened to
the public in 2007 but work on the
rest of the project continued until
2010.
Daniel Libeskind says that the name
Crystal is derived from, "the building’s
five intersecting volumes, which are
reminiscent of crystals. The
intersection of two of the crystals,
each of which is dedicated to new
galleries, creates a void, known as
the Spirit House. Essentially
a large atrium rising from below
ground level to the fourth floor,
and containing a number of
criss-crossing bridges at various
levels, the Spirit House is intended
to be a place for visitors to
reflect upon the exhibitions they
have experienced in one of the
gallery spaces before moving on to
the next. A fourth crystal,
known as the Stair of Wonders, is
dedicated to vertical circulation
but also features exhibition
vitrines at the landings. A
fifth crystal houses the major new
restaurant."
As you can imagine the addition of
such a radical building design on to a
well loved Victorian building was not
received quietly. A similarly
"challenging" extension design for the
Victoria & Albert Museum in London
by Libeskind was eventually
dropped. However, William
Thorsell, chief executive of the ROM,
was quoted in 2007 as saying that, "It's just a
wonderfully extravagant moment for
Toronto," adding that he
believed the flamboyant design would
set a new standard for Toronto.
Libeskind, Thorsell said, is, " .. one of
these real artists who has pulled
back the curtain on a new face of
beauty .... I think he's
teaching us that beauty comes in
many guises, just like
painters have over the centuries."
On the other hand an article by
Alexandra Posadzki in the Toronto Star
on November 22, 2009, reported that
the Crystal had been ranked Number 8
among the World's 10 Ugliest
Buildings. I should add that two
others in the list were ones I rather
like.
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