Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum

Established	April 16, 1912
Location	Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Director	William Thorsell
Website	www.rom.on.ca

The Royal Ontario Museum, commonly known as the ROM (rhyming with Tom and Mom), is a major museum for world culture and natural history in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The ROM is the fifth largest museum in North America and contains more than six million items and over 40 galleries. It is also the largest museum in Canada. It has notable collections of dinosaurs, Near Eastern and African art, East Asian art, European history, and Canadian history.

The museum is located at the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road, north of Queen's Park and on the east side of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto. Established in 1912 by the provincial government, the Royal Ontario Museum was operated by the University of Toronto until 1955. Now an independent institution, the museum still maintains close relations with the university, often sharing expertise and resources.

Building

The mosaic ceiling of the rotunda entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum. The middle of the dome reads, "That all men may know His work."

Opened on March 14, 1914 by HRH The Duke of Connaught, Governor General of Canada, the museum's original building was designed by Toronto architects Frank Darling and John A. Pearson. The architectural style is Italianate Neo-Romanesque, popular throughout North America until the 1870s. The structure is heavily massed and punctuated by rounded and segmented arched windows with heavy surrounds and hood mouldings. Other features include applied decorative eave brackets, quoins and cornices.

When the museum's site was first chosen, it was still at the edge of Toronto's built-up area and far from the city's business district. The location was selected mainly for its proximity to the University of Toronto. The original building was constructed on the western edge of the property along the university's Philosopher's Walk, with its entrance opening on Bloor Street. It was 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.

East-facing facade of the Royal Ontario Museum, built in 1933.

First expansion

The ROM's first expansion saw the construction of the wing fronting onto Queen's Park. Opened on October 12, 1933, it included the museum's elaborate art deco, Byzantine-inspired rotunda and a new main entrance. To employ as many men as possible during the Great Depression, the excavation for the basements and foundations were undertaken by hand, with teams of workers working alternate weeks. The new wing was designed by Alfred H. Chapman and James Oxley, and required the demolition of Argyle House, a Victorian mansion at 100 Queen's Park.

The linking wing and rear (west) facade of the Queen's Park wing were originally done in the same yellow brick as the 1914 building, with minor Italianate detailing. However, the Queen's Park facade of the expansion broke from the heavy Italianate style of the original structure. It was built in a neo-Byzantine style with rusticated stone, triple windows contained within recessed arches, and different-coloured stone arranged into 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 among neo-Byzantine buildings in North America, the facade also contains elements of Gothic Revival in its relief carvings, gargoyles and statues. The ornate ceiling of the rotunda is covered predominantly in gold back-painted glass mosaic tiles, with coloured mosaic geometric patterns and 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 original building and the 1933 expansion have been listed heritage buildings of Toronto since 1973.

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.

In 1964, the McLaughlin Planetarium was added to the south, and a multi-level atrium was added in 1975, 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.

Opened in 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, a $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 2004 in favour of a new expansion designed by architect Daniel Libeskind.

Third Expansion

Architect's rendering of the recently-opened Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, an addition to the Royal Ontario Museum.

The museum is currently undergoing a major renovation and expansion project, dubbed Renaissance ROM. The centerpiece is the recently-opened Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and Bregman + Hamann Architects; installation of exhibits in the addition will continue over a period of months. Existing galleries and buildings are also being restored. Renovated galleries in the historic buildings will reopen in stages, and all work is scheduled to be completed by 2008. The final cost of the project will be $250 million CAD.

The Libeskind design, selected from among 50 entrants in an international competition, saw the Terrace Galleries torn down and replaced with a Deconstructivist crystalline-form clad in 25 percent glass and 75 percent aluminium. The building is named after Michael Lee-Chin, who donated $30 million towards its construction. It houses the new main entrance to the museum, a gift shop, six additional galleries as well as an exhibition hall in the basement. The new "Crystal" section has been mocked by many Ontarians and others who find it a defacement of the original building and it has been overheard to have been called on more than one occasion "the Botch on Bloor".

The Crystal's canted walls do 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. Although designed to conform to existing height restrictions and maintain sight lines along Bloor Street, the Crystal, at certain points, cantilevers over the setback and into the street allowance.

The building's design is similar to some of Libeskind's other works, notably the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre, and the Fredric C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum. The steel framework was manufactured and assembled by Walters Inc. of Hamilton, Ontario. The extruded anodized aluminum cladding was fabricated by Josef Gartner in Germany, the only company in the world that can produce the material. The company also provided the titanium cladding for Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

The overall aim of the Crystal is to provide openness and accessibility. It seeks to blur the lines between the public area of the street and the more private area of the museum. The goal is to act as an open threshold where people as well as artifacts animate the spaces. The main lobby is a three-story high atrium, named the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court. The lobby is overlooked by balconies and flanked by two staircases named the Stair of Wonders and the Spirit House, interstitial space formed by the intersection of the east and west crystals, intended as a space of emotional and physical diversion.

Existing parts of the museum are also being renovated. Galleries will be made larger, windows uncovered, and the original early-20th-century architecture made more prominent. The exteriors of the heritage buildings are to be cleaned and restored. The restoration of the west wing (1914) is currently the largest heritage project underway in Canada.

The first phase of the Renaissance ROM project 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 phase of gallery re-openings includes exhibits featuring the art and history of Japan, China, Korea, and of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Seeking additional funding to cover the costs of the second phase of construction, the directors of the museum planned to erect 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. The plan was dropped after opposition from neighbourhood groups and an angry public meeting on November 7, 2005.

-->

Galleries

Originally, there were five major galleries at the ROM, one each for the fields of archeology, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, and zoology. 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 1980s 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

A dinosaur exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, prior to 2006.

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 1271 - 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 2007, 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 Trick Currelly. The spirit has been reportedly seen in a nightshirt wandering in the Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art.
• The Royal Ontario Museum runs its own children's camps for the summer, March Break, and Saturday mornings. It is widely renowned, and is recognized as being one of the best children's camps in the city of Toronto.

External links

• Royal Ontario Museum
• ROM Construction Webcam
• Emporis Listing
• Location of the museum with links to web sites related to the area

Footnotes

Galleries of the Royal Ontario Museum: Ancient Egypt and Nubia. 1994. Roberta L. Shaw and Krzysztof Grzymski. Royal Ontario Museum. ISBN 0-88854-411-1.

43.667476°N 79.39417°W / 43.667476; -79.39417