DANIEL LIBESKIND

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

DANIEL
LIBESKIND
Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a 
PolishAmerican architect, artist, professor and 
set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel
Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its
principal design architect.
Libeskind began his career as an architectural
theorist and professor, holding positions at
various institutions around the world. His
practical architectural career began in Milan in
the late 1980s, where he submitted to
architectural competitions and also founded and
directed Architecture Intermundium, Institute
for Architecture & Urbanism. Libeskind
completed his first building at the age of 52,
with the opening of the Felix Nussbaum Haus in
1998
DANIEL LIBESKIND
Libeskind is perhaps most
famous for being selected by
the 
Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation
 to oversee the 
rebuilding of the World Trade
CenterCritics charge that it
reflects a limited architectural
vocabulary of jagged edges,
sharp angles and tortured
geometries,[30] that can fall into
cliche, and that it ignores
location and context.
ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM
 ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM
The extension to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), now named the Michael Lee-Chin
Crystal, is situated at one of the most prominent intersections in downtown central Toronto.
 It is the largest Museum in Canada and attracts more than a million visitors a year.
Its new name is derived from the building’s five intersecting metal-clad volumes, which are
reminiscent of crystals—inspired by the crystalline forms in the ROM’s mineralogy galleries.
Libeskind created a structure of organically interlocking prismatic forms turning this
important corner of Toronto, and the entire museum complex, into a luminous beacon.
With the expansion, a new group entrance on Queen’s Park was created where visitors enter a
spectacular atrium in which the two themes of the Museum, Nature and Culture, are distinctly
showcased through intertwining staircases 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.
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The design succeeds in inviting glimpses up, down, into galleries and even from the
street. The large entrance atrium, the Gloria Hyacinth Chen Court, separates the old
historic building from the new, providing a nearly complete view of the restored façades
of the historic buildings.   The Chen Court also serves as a venue space for all kinds of
public events.
Opened in June 2007, the extension provides 100,000 square feet of new exhibition
space, a new entrance and lobby, a street level retail shop and three new restaurants. 
Studio Daniel Libeskind also renovated ten galleries in the existing historical building as
part of the project.
AWARDS
2009 – XVII Concorso Internazionale – “Sistema d’autore Metra”, 2007 – Ontario Steel
Design Awards – Canada Institute of Steel Construction
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PLAN FLOOR PLAN SIDE ELEVATION

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM (INTERIOR)