Royal Ontario Museum
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The Royal Ontario Museum, commonly known as the ROM (rhyming with Tom), is a world-renowned museum located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is the fifth largest in North America.
History
The museum was created by the Province of Ontario on April 16, 1912 and was opened on March 19, 1914. From that time up until 1955 it was run by the University of Toronto.It is to the north of Queen's Park and east of the main campus of the University of Toronto. It has notable collections of dinosaurs, Near Eastern and African art, East Asian art, European history, Canadian history, culture, and biodiversity, and five million other pieces of art, archaeology, and science. In total the collection holds more than six million items.
The building is at the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road. While this location was outside of downtown when the site was chosen, it was selected for its proximity to the University of Toronto. The University and the ROM have continued to have close relations, often sharing expertise and resources. Construction began in 1914. The first part constructed was the west wing, that is today used as storage and office space. It was greatly expanded in the 1930s as part of the government's attempt to create jobs during the Great Depression. In 1964 the McLaughlin Planetarium was added to the south and in 1975 a multi-level atrium was added, doubling the floor space. The planetarium was closed in 1995, then re-opened temporarily in 1998 as the Children's Own Museum. It is now used primarily as office space and storage.
The ROM currently employs over 350 people.[Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), accessed November 10, 2005]
Building
The ROM has undergone two major expansions since its founding, and is currently (as of 2006) undergoing a third.Original building
Opened on March 14, 1914, by HRH The Duke of Connaught, Governor General of Canada, the original building was designed by Toronto architects Frank Darling and John A. Pearson in an Italianate neo-Romanesque style, which had been a popular throughout North America until the 1870s. This style is evident in the heavy massing of the structure, punctuated by rounded, segmented arched windows with heavy surrounds and hood mouldings, and the applied decorative eave brackets, quoins and cornices. It was built along the western edge of the site, with its entrance off Bloor Street, as the first phase of a two-part master plan which was to see the museum eventually expanded towards Queen's Park Crescent as an 'H' shaped building.First expansion
The first expansion was the second phase wing, added to the original building, and despite the ongoing Depression, it opened on October 12, 1933. To allow for the employment of as many men as possible, the excavation for the basements and foundations were undertaken by hand, and the men worked alternating weeks. The new building, designed by Alfred H. Chapman and James Oxley, required the demolition of Argyle House, a Victorian mansion at 100 Queen's Park, and though the linking wing and rear (west) facade of the Queen's Park wing were done in the same yellow brick with minor Italianate detailing as the 1914 building, the main facade of this new expansion, the new main front of the museum itself, broke from the heavy Italianate style of the original structure, opting more for a neo-Byzantine style with rusticated stone, triple windows contained within recessed arches, and different-coloured stone arranged in a variety of patterns. This development from the Roman-inspired Italianate to a Byzantine influenced style reflected the historical development of Byzantine architecture from Roman architecture. Common amongst neo-Byzantine buildings in North America, the facade also contains elements of Gothic Revival in its relief carvings, gargoyles and statues. This new wing includes the elaborate art deco, Byzantine-inspired, ex-main entrance rotunda that faces east onto Queen's Park Road. The ornate ceiling of this rotunda is covered predominantly in gold back-painted glass mosaic tiles, with coloured mosaic geometric patterns as well as images of real and mythical animals.
Writing in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1933, A. S. Mathers said of the expansion: "The interior of the building is a surprise and a pleasant one; the somewhat complicated ornament of the facade is forgotten and a plan on the grand manner unfolds itself. It is simple, direct and big in scale. One is convinced that the early Beaux Arts training of the designer has not been in vain. The outstanding feature of the interior is the glass mosaic ceiling of the entrance rotunda. It is executed in colours and gold, and strikes a fine note in the one part of the building which the architect could decorate without conflicting with the exhibits." [The Museum: Past, Present and Future, by Dr. James E. Cruise]
The original building and the 1933 expansion have been listed heritage buildings of Toronto since 1973. [Heritage of the ROM, accessed November 10, 2005]
Second expansion
The second major addition was the Queen Elizabeth II Terrace Galleries on the north side of the building, and a curatorial centre built on the south, which were started in 1978, completed in 1984, and designed by Toronto architect Gene Kinoshita, with Mathers & Haldenby.The new construction meant that a former outdoor "Chinese Garden" to the north of the building facing Bloor, along with an adjoining indoor restaurant, had to be dismantled.
Opened in 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, the $55 million expansion was built in a simple modernist style of poured concrete, glass, and pre-cast concrete and aggregate panels. It took the form of layered volumes, each rising layer stepping back from Bloor Street, hence creating a layered terrace effect. Though the design of this expansion won a Governor General's Award in Architecture, this last set of galleries was torn down in favour of a new expansion modeled after a design by architect Daniel Libeskind, which began construction in 2004. [Royal Ontario Museum Review]
Third expansion
The museum is currently undergoing a major renovation and redesign, dubbed the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind and Bregman + Hamann Architects, and slated for completion in Fall 2006, and was budgeted to cost $200 million.
Decided by an international competition which drew 50 entrants, this renovation will see the Terrace Galleries torn down and replaced with a deconstructivist crystalline-form clad in 25% glass and 75% aluminium. The building, to be named after donor Michael Lee-Chin (who donated $30 million CAD towards its construction)["ROM condo-tower plan scrapped", Globe & Mail, accessed November 10, 2005], will contain the new entrance to the museum, a gift shop, six additional galleries as well as an exhibition hall in the basement. The Crystal's canted walls will not touch the sides of the existing heritage buildings save for where pedestrian crossing occurs, and to close the envelope between the new form and the existing walls. Though designed to maintain sight lines along Bloor Street, and to conform to existing height restrictions, the Crystal will at certain points cantilever over the setback and into the street allowance.
The overall idea of the Crystal is to provide openness and accessibility, and to blur the lines between the public area of the street and the more private area of the museum, acting as an open threshold where people as well as artifacts animate the spaces. The main lobby will be a three-story high atrium volume, named the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court, overlooked by balconies, and flanked by two staircases: the "Stair of Wonders" and the "Spirit House," which will take visitors to the east and west crystals respectively. The "Spirit House" will be the interstitial space formed by the intersection of the east and west crystals, entered on the ground level, and is meant to be a space of "emotional and physical diversion."[Royal Ontario Museum: Spirit House]
This new design is similar to some of Liebskind's other buildings, notably the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre, and the Fredric C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum.
The ROM has said of Liebskind's design: "The Crystal transforms the ROM's fortress-like character, turning it into an inspired atmosphere dedicated to the resurgence of the museum as the dynamic centre of Toronto."[CTV: German architect to revamp Royal Ontario Museum]
The steel framework is being manufactured by Walters Inc., of Hamilton, Ontario. The extruded anodized aluminum cladding is being fabricated by Josef Gartner in Germany, which is the only firm in the world capable of the task (they also provided the titanium cladding for Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain).[Canadian Embassy Beijing: New Rom rising]
The first phase opened to the public on December 26, 2005, including the newly-restored rotunda with reproductions of the original oak doors, a restored axial view from the rotunda west through to windows onto Philosopher's Walk, and a ten renovated galleries comprising a total of 90,000 square feet. This initial phase of gallery re-openings includes ones that look at the art and history of Japan, China, Korea, and of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada.ROM Members' News, Winter 2005-6.
The new gallery spaces incorporated within the crystal structure are set to open in Fall 2007.
In addition, the museum's older interior spaces are being renovated and reconfigured; galleries are to be made larger, windows uncovered, and the original early-20th-century architecture made more prominent. The exteriors of the heritage buildings are also being cleaned and restored. The restoration of the west wing (1914) is currently the largest heritage project underway in Canada.
Seeking additional funding to cover the costs the second phase of construction, the directors of the museum had planned on erecting luxury condominiums on the space currently occupied by the McLaughlin Planetarium. The building would have contributed an extra 35,000 square feet of office space and storage, and brought in $20 million to the ROM's new expansion. This motion was quashed at a public meeting on November 7, 2005.
Permanent galleries
Originally, there were five major galleries at the ROM, one each for the fields of archeology, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, and zoology.[Guide Rating and Review: Large Museum Shops, accessed November 10, 2005] In general the museum pieces were labeled and arranged in a static fashion that had changed little since Edwardian times. For example, the insects exhibit that lasted up until the 1970s housed insects from around the world in long rows of glass cases, with insects of the same genus pinned to the inside of the cabinet, with only the species name and location found as a description.By the 1960s more interpretive displays were ushered in, among the first being the original dinosaur gallery, established in the mid-1960s. Dinosaur fossils were now staged in dynamic poses against backdrop paintings and models of contemporaneous landscapes and vegetation. The displays became more descriptive and interpretive, sometimes, as with the extinction of the woolly mammoth, offering several different leading theories on the issue for the visitor to ponder.
This trend continued, and up until the present time the galleries became less staid, and more dynamic or descriptive and interpretive. This trend arguably came to a culmination in the early 1990s with the opening of The Bat Cave, where a sound system, strobe lights and gentle puffs of air attempts to re-create the experience of walking through a cave as a flock of bats fly out.
The original galleries were simply named after their subject material, but in more recent years, individual galleries have been named in honour of sponsors who have donated significant funds or collections to the institution. There are now main categories of galleries present in the ROM: the Natural History Galleries and the World Culture Galleries.
Natural history galleries
The Natural history galleries are all collected on the second floor of the museum, and contains collections and samples of various animals from around the world.The Gallery of Birds depicts several hundred bird specimens, illustrating the many different habits and ecological niches they inhabit. This gallery is dominated by the large "Birds in flight" display, and includes exhibits of now extinct species, such as the Passenger Pigeon.
The Gallery of Insects and Their Relatives focuses on the insect and related species native to the province of Ontario. The gallery includes live enclosed insect displays of some more exotic creatures, including stick insects, cockroaches and tarantulas.
Various dioramas dominate the Gallery of Mammals, which includes examples of a lion family in the savannah, zebras, primates living in a rainforest, as well as mammals indigenous to North America. It also includes the Bat Cave, a reconstruction of the St. Clair cave in Jamaica, filled with bats and other animals typically found in such caves, including spiders and snakes.
The Hands-on Biodiversity Gallery provides visitors with the chance to experience and examine the world of nature close-up. Visit a glassed-in working beehive, examine shed snake skins, and look at drawers filled with insect, bird, amphibian, reptile and mammal specimens.
A wide range of snakes, lizards, crocodiles and turtles are represented in the Gallery of Reptiles.
World culture galleries
The A.G. Leventis Foundation Gallery of Ancient Cyprus houses roughly 300 artifacts, ranging in age from 2200-30 BC.The Chinese Galleries comprise four sections: the Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of China, the Matthews Family Court of Chinese Sculpture, and the ROM Gallery of Chinese Architecture. The Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art incorporates three temple wall paintings (recently refurbished) from the Yuan Dynasty (AD 271 - 1386). It also includes a number of wooden sculptures depicting various bodhisattvas. The ROM has one of the largest collection of Chinese architectural artifacts outside of China, which is housed in the ROM Gallery of Chinese Architecture. This gallery includes a Ming-era Tomb complex and the reconstruction of an Imperial Palace building from Beijing's Forbidden City, circa 1600. The Egyptian Gallery focuses on the life (and the afterlife) of Ancient Egyptians. It includes a wide range of artifacts, ranging from agricultural implements, jewelry, cosmetics, funerary furnishings and more. The exhibit includes a number of mummy cases, including the fine gilded and painted coffin of Djedmaatesankh, who was a female musician at the temple of Amun-Re in Thebes, and the mummy of Antjau, who is thought to have been a wealthy landowner.
The Gallery of the Bronze Age Aegean contains almost 200 objects that include examples from the Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean periods of Ancient Greece, ranging in age from 3000 - 700 BC
There is a gallery devoted to the aboriginal people of Canada, called the Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, containing many examples of early 19th and 20th century artwork and clothing. It includes artifacts from the indigenous cultures of the Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Northwest Coast, Subarctic and Arctic regions. A rotating display of contemporary Native art is also on display there, a theatre devoted to traditional storytelling, and a collection of painting by the pioneer artist Paul Kane.
The Gallery of Korea is the country's only permanent gallery devoted to Korean art and culture, ranging from stone-age tools to contemporary artworks.
The Prince Takamado Gallery of Japan contains the largest collection of Japanese artworks in Canada, featuring a rotating display of ukiyo-e prints, and the only tea master's collection in North America. The gallery is named in honour of the late Japanese Prince Takamado, who spent several years at a Canadian University.
Other world culture galleries include the Gallery of Greece, the Gallery of Islam, Gallery of The Roman World, the Herman Herzog Levy Gallery, the Samuel European Galleries and the Samuel Hall-Currelly Gallery.
Forthcoming galleries
Set to open in 2006, the revamped Gallery of the Age of Dinosaurs will feature many examples of complete dinosaur skeletons, as well as those of early birds, reptiles and mammals ranging from the Jurassic to Cretaceous periods.The Patricia Harris Gallery of Costumes and Textiles, set to open in 2007, will feature a range of garments, including examples from the Chinese imperial court, 18th century European fashions, along with samples of Canadian clothing and quilts.
The expanded Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery, also to open in 2007, will contain objects from over 5,000 years of history, including religious artifacts, paintings, textiles, sculpture, armour, and weaponry.
Trivia
It has been alleged on more than a few occasions that the Royal Ontario Museum is haunted by the ghost of its first curator, Charles Currelly. The spirit has been reportedly seen in a nightshirt wandering in the Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art.See also
External links
Reference
Galleries of the Royal Ontario Museum: Ancient Egypt and Nubia. 1994. Roberta L. Shaw and Krzysztof Grzymski. Royal Ontario Museum. ISBN 0888544111.Footnotes
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