ROM Renaissance

[nfotxn]

ROM Renaissance, originally uploaded by nfotxn.

Some pics of the ROM retro-fit as I took some of my gays on a death march through the city. It was seriously a death march, even I have the blisters on my feet to prove it.

I'm especially interested in this building because as a kid birthdays, holidays and family outings with my family usually revolved around places like the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), Ontario Science Centre, Toronto Zoo etc.

I really dig how the building engages the street. It also takes a museum out of the context of Victorian ideas of progress past and places science and discovery back in the present. I think it's leading the way to present modern buildings and spaces to drive that feeling home, despite a dominating feeling of conservatism in the culture at large.

You can read more about the building at the Architect's web site.

Comments

[dizzi-d.livejournal.com]

The Crystalline Entity is eating the ROM NOOOOOOO!

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there an episode where it killed like somebody important on STNG? I can't remember anymore.

[dizzi-d.livejournal.com]

No you're remembering the malevolent black ooze that killed Tasha.

Affectionately known as "The Tar that Ate Yar."

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Yes, watching that episode again these days is so weird. STNG now feels like TOS did when STNG was new.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Heh, the tar "ate" her. Hehe. Hehe. Hehe.

[jbear70.livejournal.com]

I've been a fan of Libeskind's work for some time now. I believe he is one of the better architects around these days.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I really like the way they look in pictures. Inside the structures I feel there might be a sense of vertigo. Which is why I look so forward to the completion of this building!

[bookbear.livejournal.com]

That is...enthralling.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

It's pretty exciting for certain!

[estudioso.livejournal.com]

As much as I like Libeskind, I'm starting to find his buidings all too repetitive. I admit I'm a total amateur in these matters, but the building is very similar to his Jew Museum in Berlin.

I do have to say, that I really like this concept of merging the old building with this new one.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Yeah they're totally similar by the looks of it. But I mean as an architect and artist I think you tend to have a certain visual vernacular to work with. As entire pieces I think they're probably pretty different.

Or not? He might be, like, a total hack!

[plaidninja.livejournal.com]

You know I actually enjoy the conservative style of most natural history museums. It's comforting, inviting and just a little bit musty. And they also take me back to books I read as a kid, particularly From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. That book was aces!

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

And that's why the building is a fusion of the two.

I never read that book :( I was totally into Rohl Dahl and those Transformers: Choose Your Own Adventure[!] books.

[emramesha.livejournal.com]

Wow, I had no idea! I've been away from the ROM for so long - I'm excited looking at the schedule of gallery openings. I'm glad they're updating the North American galleries and knowing the archaeological resources they have available, the Nubia gallery should be wonderful.

Unfortunately, I think the new design looks hideous. I'll try to judge for myself when I visit Toronto this weekend and view the work in progress.

Cool building...

[jamesbeary.livejournal.com]

But this, in a way kind of resemble the other one in Denver, Colorado by Dainel Liebenskind. http://www.denverartmuseum.org/expansion/index.html check it out and you will see how similar both are the one at ROM and the one at DAM

Re: Cool building...

[0bark0.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD! It's exactly the same!
I've long thought the ROM addition was an abomination, but now I find it's not even an original abomination!
Gee, I cant' wait til he does the exact same thing to the Hummingbird Centre.
The horrors.