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Final Architect for Renaissance ROM Announced

The Honourable Tim Hudak, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation has announced that the firm Studio Daniel Libeskind (Berlin, Germany) has been selected as the final architect who will lead the design of the Royal Ontario Museum's (ROM) ambitious transformation project, Renaissance ROM. Selected from fifty international firms who expressed interest in the project, Daniel Libeskind was chosen by the ROM's Architect Selection Committee and ratified by the ROM Board of Trustees today, after a comprehensive review process that included input from the public.

In announcing the Final Architect, Minister Hudak stated, "We all know that the ROM is a great Canadian Museum. However, it has the potential to be among the great museums of the world. Starting with an architectural transformation, featuring a new entrance and vibrant new galleries, exhibits, and programs, I am confident that the ROM can realize even more of its potential as an educational and cultural resource for the people of Ontario and our visitors from across Canada and around the world."

On the selection of the Final Architect, William Thorsell, ROM President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Daniel Libeskind has been responsible for brilliant and profound works of art and of culture. He possesses that rare quality of bringing an enormous intelligence and thoughtfulness and reflection to a project and then matching it with an equal amount of creativity. We truly look forward to working with Daniel during this very exciting era in the history of the ROM."

Daniel Libeskind's winning design (as proposed in the architect's written submission) is entitled The Crystal. Inspired by the crystalline forms in the ROM's mineralogy galleries, Libeskind has proposed a structure of organically interlocking prismatic forms, turning this important corner of Toronto and the entire museum complex into a luminous beacon, a showcase of people, events, and objects. Daniel Libeskind's sculptural composition of architectural forms radiates from the entrance crystal, gathering the urban vitality of Bloor Street. A new group entrance on Queen's Park is provided, while Philosopher's Walk is marked by a new entrance to the cafe and panoramic restaurant up above. Visitors enter a spectacular atrium in which the two themes of the Museum, Nature and Culture, are distinctly showcased through intertwining stairs leading to the exhibitions above. The entire ground level is unified into a seamless space with clarity of circulation and transparency. 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.

Daniel Libeskind's local partner for this project is the firm of Bregman + Hamann Architects. It is anticipated that the groundbreaking for phase one of the project will occur in Spring 2003.

Originally trained as a musician, Daniel Libeskind studied at the Cooper Union in New York and Essex University in England. His projects range from major public and cultural buildings to urban and landscape design to stage design and exhibitions. Libeskind's architecture is based on an innovative critical discourse that draws upon many disciplines. He set up his office in 1990 to build the Jewish Museum Berlin, which won the German Architecture Prize in 1999. His first completed building, the Felix Nussbaum Museum in Osnabrück, opened in 1998. Libeskind was awarded the Goethe Medallion for culture in 2000. While building the Imperial War Museum-North in Manchester, due to open in 2002, Libeskind was awarded the 2001 Hiroshima Art Prize for an artist whose work promotes peace. Currently he is working on the "Spiral" extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the extension to the Denver Art Museum, among others.

Architect Selection Background:
A long list of twelve architecture firms who expressed interest in the Renaissance ROM design selection process (from an international field of fifty firms) was announced in September 2001. The Architect Selection Committee and Working Group then invited these long-listed firms to: respond to a formal Request for Proposal, visit the Museum in person, hold an interview with the Selection Committee, and fill a sketchbook with their concepts, ideas, and proposals for the transformation of the ROM, for public display.

In December 2001, the ROM announced that the three finalists considered for the final phase were Architetto Andrea Bruno, Bing Thom Architects, and Studio Daniel Libeskind. The diverse range of these short-listed architectural visions for the Museum is now on view on the ROM's third floor in the updated exhibition, Views of Our Future: Architectural Finalists. All three architects came to the Museum to present their final proposals, both to the Selection Committee and the public, between February 11 and 13, 2002.

Peter Janson, Chair of the Architect Selection Committee stated, "The process has been thorough and comprehensive. Through private discussions, site visits, public presentations, media scrutiny, and a volume of public comments, the Selection Committee has filtered through much information to make what they believe to be the right choice for the ROM's future."

Renaissance ROM project:
Great cities, regions, and countries are characterized by the great cultural institutions which define and express them. The fifth largest museum in North America by virtue of the volume and quality of the nearly five million beautiful and remarkable objects in its collections, the ROM is an internationally renowned institution with a unique dual mandate of "the record of life through all the ages" and "the arts of man through all the years." Its exhibits and galleries, its academic standing, and its curators are admired world-wide. The ROM is known as a place where both young people and adults can be enthralled and captivated.

Renaissance ROM is the Master Plan for a major capital expansion of the ROM and its galleries, to be completed in two stages of construction between 2003 and 2006. This new vision is vital to the Museum's continued growth, ensuring that the ROM remains a critical part of the cultural landscape of the city, the province, and Canada. It will bring the current international museum boom to Toronto and lead to increased cultural tourism as well as the economic benefits associated with greater visibility on the global stage. Located on one of the most desirable pieces of real estate in Canada, the ROM is well positioned to contribute to the cultural renaissance of Toronto while serving as an anchor for the development of Toronto's vibrant and revitalized museum arts district, including the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Bata Shoe Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the University of Toronto.

Currently, like many museums, limitations in the ROM's facilities has meant that only a portion of its rich collections are on display. Renaissance ROM will allow the Museum to bring a greater portion of its internationally significant collections into the public's view and out of its storage areas. Much of the ROM's original architectural attributes, of both its 1912 and 1932 buildings, are largely hidden from view with many of its galleries now out of date. The restoration of this architecture, coupled with the construction of a new signature building and reconceived exhibitions and galleries is the impetus behind the ROM's major renewal. By way of a new Bloor Street entrance, the ROM is seeking to create superb new architecture and amenities that will improve the quality of the visitor experience at the same time that the Museum's inherited assets are retrieved and released. The Museum further looks to elevate its Canadiana collection from the basement to major new gallery spaces. Currently, up to one million visitors each year enjoy the ROM while approximately 400,000 others, throughout the province, experience the Museum through its Outreach Services. However, Renaissance ROM will facilitate a significant increase in attendance so that the ROM can reverse the decade long retreat in funding for collections, research, and education.

The ROM is seeking major investment from both the public and private sectors, including the ROM's applications to the Ontario Government's SuperBuild fund (submitted in April, 2001) and the federal government, as well as a planned capital campaign.

The ROM awarded the contract for construction management to Vanbots Construction Corporation in January 2002. The exhibit developer will be announced at a later date. Detailed background information on Renaissance ROM may be found at: www.rom.on.ca, by following the link to the Renaissance ROM page.

The members of the Architect Selection Committee (announced on August 21, 2001) include: ROM Trustees: Peter Janson (Chair of Master Plan Task Force), Jack Cockwell (Chair of the Board of Trustees), Andrea Bronfman (deputy chair of the CRB Foundation of Montreal and Jerusalem), Joey Tanenbaum (chairman and CEO of Jay-M Enterprises Ltd.) and William Thorsell (ROM President and CEO); James Temerty (ROM Foundation Board of Directors); Liza Samuel (former ROM Board of Trustees Chair), Belinda Stronach (CEO of Magna International), and Leslie Rebanks (President of Rebanks Architects Inc.). The Working Group includes: Elsie Lo and Bronwyn Krog (ROM Board of Trustees); Michael Miller (Chair, Department of Architectural Science and Landscape Architecture, Ryerson Polytechnic University), Elizabeth Sisam (Director of Campus & Facility Planning, University of Toronto); and the following ROM staff: Meg Beckel (Chief Operating Officer), Dave Hollands (Director of Design), Tony Hushion (Vice President, Exhibits, Project Management and New Media Resources), David Palmer (President and Executive Director, ROM Foundation), Joel Peters (Vice President, Marketing and Commercial Development), Dan Rahimi (Director, Collections Management), Mike Shoreman (Senior Vice President, Business and Capital Development), and Hans Sues (Vice President, Collections and Research).

 

 

Issue date:
February 26, 2002

For more information:
Media Relations
Tel.: 416.586.5547
Fax: 416.586.8022
E-mail: media@rom.on.ca

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