Terri Meyer Boake BES BArch MArch LEED AP
Professor :: School of Architecture :: University of Waterloo

Renovation to the Royal Ontario Museum

Interiors - pre-installations

Studio Daniel Libeskind

Toronto, Ontario

 


Project Information:

Design Architect: Studio Daniel Libeskind
Local Architects: Bregman and Hamann
Steel Fabrication: Walters Inc.
General Contractor: Vanbots Construction Corporation

link to a short video of the interiors on the night of the opening

link to the Daniel Libeskind "important guests" tour the night of the opening



Architectural opening - June 4, 2007
The ROM shop. Libeskind's chairs, specially designed for the Crystal. You cannot buy them here, but Neinkamper sells them for $20,000 apiece I am told...
View from the main atrium to the gallery floors above.
The main atrium.
The completed Weston Gallery at the lower level.

Exhibits in the end walls of the "Stair of Wonders".

Looking towards the ceiling on the top floor.
Sloped walls of intersecting crystals penetrate the space on the top floor.

The fourth floor gallery.
A bit of exposed steel! These small pieces of HSS seem to be left exposed in these rare occasions between the glazing sections. You can also see where the UV screens have and have not yet been installed.
Looking from inside a window frame to the gallery beyond.

This shows how deep the overall wall section is. I am standing inside the window opening looking up between the drywall clad steel on the left (inside) and the window section (right). The material on the right of the photo is the UV protective screen that is attached to the window mullions.

The space in the top floor of the central crystal.
View to Bloor Street.
A piece of diagrid pierces the space.
The curved exhibit wall of the "History of History" exhibit on the top floor.
The curved exhibit wall complements the angularity of the space.
Exhibits in the "History of History" display.
A view out onto the roof over the main atrium. The enclosures you see house the skylights that penetrate into the main atrium space below.
Looking out over Bloor Street.
Sloping floors, sloping walls or sloping ceilings?
There are no right angles, but I am not sure if the floor is this sloped... they are all sloped a bit though.
Gallery space.
Gallery space.
View into the atrium space that runs up the front of the building.
One of the galleries.
A view down the main crossover bridges that connect the separate areas of the museum.
A view from the main atrium to the brick wall of the old building.
A view from the main atrium looking towards the front entrance.
Here you can see the overall depth of the drywall clad steel diagrid, which is held out from the glazing mullions and which therefore allows public access to these window spaces.
There is a little wee sign on that sloped wall. It was not there on the opening night. It says "No Climbing". Apparently, some "people" were climbing from this gallery to the one opposite. The trick here is that they could have fallen over the balcony from this the third floor, to the ground floor... Wonder how long this will stay "barrier free"... link to more interesting stuff...

These images are for educational use only and may not be reproduced commercially without written permission. tboake@sympatico.ca

Updated February 11, 2021