ROM looking west from new entrance Daniel Libeskind 2007 View The Rom expansion"live" on webcam http://www.rom.on.ca/visit/webcam.phpHey like art and everything maybe it's all, about lighting.
When I started this blog I thought it would be a better service not to mention my opinions. I was wrong. Here is a response I sent to CBC radio show Q segment on absurdest architecture;
Bad research for this segment guys. The so
called cuts on the surface of the new ROM building are a response/compromise to a truly absurd idea; build a museum out of glass. A truly stupid idea the god Daniel thought he could force on the curators and artifacts of the ROM. Part of his infamous muse on on a napkin. They compromised on cuts. Had Thorsell listened to the curators this post modernest schlock would never have been built. Larry Richards makes the equally dumb and insensitive statement that the curaters must meet the challenges of the designer. 200,000 dollars was recently spent to build a temporary 90 degree vertical wall to hang art in the new ROM. It was removed after the show ( see recent Globe And Mail articles) The basement exhibit space where Canada collects is being shown is a ugly forest of pillars that detracts and distracts from the artifacts (yet it is require to support the absurd structure).
Mr. Thorsell and the god Daniel were only accountable to their desire to build a "world class" venue. Their mark on Toronto is a 350 million dollar stain on Toronto's reputation. A very bad expensive joke that won't go away for 150 years.
Remember the skydome?
By the way this renovation added no display space to the museum. It is world class absurd.
In all fairness the high priced Chaska shop and the restaurant are both very impressive and appear designed to be able to sell things.
Here is a interesting comment on Denver's Gift from God Daniel ( http://www.westword.com/2007-04-12/culture/denver-art-museum/) ; The problem is deficit spending, with the museum's projected shortfall for the year estimated at anywhere from $4 million to $10 million. That's a lot of scratch. Part of the reason -- but only one small part -- is salaries, since the museum hired more than sixty new staffers to open the Frederic C. Hamilton Building last fall. The extra staff was brought on in anticipation of a million visitors to the now-world-famous Daniel Libeskind building. This projection was wildly optimistic -- and not just in retrospect. Nearly all of the potential audience for the Hamilton comes from the state of Colorado, which has a population of roughly 4 million -- and did anyone really believe that one out of every four people were going to show up?
Well, at the DAM, they did believe it, and hiring decisions were made based on those inflated projections. Because the DAM has been hoisted on its own demographic petard, it is widely believed that attendance has been low or even dismal. But that's not entirely true, since 380,000 people have already gone through the place, and it's well on target to post the largest number of annual visitors in the institution's more than 100-year history. It's already surpassed every year but a few when blockbusters ruled the DAM. It should also be mentioned that the blizzard in December and bad weather in January definitely had a negative effect on attendance. According to the museum, upwards of 50,000 people were kept away -- and I don't doubt it.
But attendance shortfall is only part of the problem. Worse are the tremendous maintenance costs associated with the complicated building, and with its serious structural problems. The most obvious of these is the problem with the atrium's roof. (That's why there is scaffolding where the monumental sculpture "Spider," by Louise Bourgeois, used to be.) If you look closely, you'll notice that the raised box beams, which are purely decorative, have been removed from around the skylights because they were identified as a primary cause of the roof problems. Plus, the condensation on the inside of the exterior walls on levels three and four may require a heating-and-cooling system between the skin and the interior. Unlike the roof, however, that fix won't be covered by insurance, as it was anticipated but not budgeted.
The bare-bones construction budget is itself another problem -- though I do think it was the right decision. To bring in a $500 million building, which is what the Hamilton looks like, for the $110 million that it actually cost, museum decision-makers went for cheap. Good money was spent on the exterior, but the inside was filled with low-cost materials. I remember being shocked when I first entered the finished building and took in the vacant-looking lobby with its plain-Jane walls and Home Depot-quality granite floors.
And I think this brings us back to the attendance problem, because although the outside of the museum has a big "wow" factor, the interior --aside from the atrium -- absolutely doesn't. I'm confident that word of mouth has made many people happy to drive by but willing to skip going inside.
From my point of view, this lobby problem can be solved by properly furnishing it and bringing in some more art. It may have been an unhappy circumstance that brought the Bourgeois inside, but that space really needed something. Now that the museum has gotten real about attendance -- you don't want a lobby cluttered with furniture and sculpture when there are a million people coming through -- it's time to make the area into something smashing."
The province of Ontario just helped ROM refinance a 85 million dollar loan spent on THE CRYSTAL I guess it would sound familiar if your guys at research did the research. The Denver building's first mock up was a crystal as well.
I guess all that matters in a second tier provincial or state capital with 4 million people is that you have a Daniel Libeskind just like Berlin has one.
When I started this blog I thought it would be a better service not to mention my opinions. I was wrong. Here is a response I sent to CBC radio show Q segment on absurdest architecture;
Bad research for this segment guys. The so
called cuts on the surface of the new ROM building are a response/compromise to a truly absurd idea; build a museum out of glass. A truly stupid idea the god Daniel thought he could force on the curators and artifacts of the ROM. Part of his infamous muse on on a napkin. They compromised on cuts. Had Thorsell listened to the curators this post modernest schlock would never have been built. Larry Richards makes the equally dumb and insensitive statement that the curaters must meet the challenges of the designer. 200,000 dollars was recently spent to build a temporary 90 degree vertical wall to hang art in the new ROM. It was removed after the show ( see recent Globe And Mail articles) The basement exhibit space where Canada collects is being shown is a ugly forest of pillars that detracts and distracts from the artifacts (yet it is require to support the absurd structure).
Mr. Thorsell and the god Daniel were only accountable to their desire to build a "world class" venue. Their mark on Toronto is a 350 million dollar stain on Toronto's reputation. A very bad expensive joke that won't go away for 150 years.
Remember the skydome?
By the way this renovation added no display space to the museum. It is world class absurd.
In all fairness the high priced Chaska shop and the restaurant are both very impressive and appear designed to be able to sell things.
Here is a interesting comment on Denver's Gift from God Daniel ( http://www.westword.com/2007-04-12/culture/denver-art-museum/) ; The problem is deficit spending, with the museum's projected shortfall for the year estimated at anywhere from $4 million to $10 million. That's a lot of scratch. Part of the reason -- but only one small part -- is salaries, since the museum hired more than sixty new staffers to open the Frederic C. Hamilton Building last fall. The extra staff was brought on in anticipation of a million visitors to the now-world-famous Daniel Libeskind building. This projection was wildly optimistic -- and not just in retrospect. Nearly all of the potential audience for the Hamilton comes from the state of Colorado, which has a population of roughly 4 million -- and did anyone really believe that one out of every four people were going to show up?
Well, at the DAM, they did believe it, and hiring decisions were made based on those inflated projections. Because the DAM has been hoisted on its own demographic petard, it is widely believed that attendance has been low or even dismal. But that's not entirely true, since 380,000 people have already gone through the place, and it's well on target to post the largest number of annual visitors in the institution's more than 100-year history. It's already surpassed every year but a few when blockbusters ruled the DAM. It should also be mentioned that the blizzard in December and bad weather in January definitely had a negative effect on attendance. According to the museum, upwards of 50,000 people were kept away -- and I don't doubt it.
But attendance shortfall is only part of the problem. Worse are the tremendous maintenance costs associated with the complicated building, and with its serious structural problems. The most obvious of these is the problem with the atrium's roof. (That's why there is scaffolding where the monumental sculpture "Spider," by Louise Bourgeois, used to be.) If you look closely, you'll notice that the raised box beams, which are purely decorative, have been removed from around the skylights because they were identified as a primary cause of the roof problems. Plus, the condensation on the inside of the exterior walls on levels three and four may require a heating-and-cooling system between the skin and the interior. Unlike the roof, however, that fix won't be covered by insurance, as it was anticipated but not budgeted.
The bare-bones construction budget is itself another problem -- though I do think it was the right decision. To bring in a $500 million building, which is what the Hamilton looks like, for the $110 million that it actually cost, museum decision-makers went for cheap. Good money was spent on the exterior, but the inside was filled with low-cost materials. I remember being shocked when I first entered the finished building and took in the vacant-looking lobby with its plain-Jane walls and Home Depot-quality granite floors.
And I think this brings us back to the attendance problem, because although the outside of the museum has a big "wow" factor, the interior --aside from the atrium -- absolutely doesn't. I'm confident that word of mouth has made many people happy to drive by but willing to skip going inside.
From my point of view, this lobby problem can be solved by properly furnishing it and bringing in some more art. It may have been an unhappy circumstance that brought the Bourgeois inside, but that space really needed something. Now that the museum has gotten real about attendance -- you don't want a lobby cluttered with furniture and sculpture when there are a million people coming through -- it's time to make the area into something smashing."
The province of Ontario just helped ROM refinance a 85 million dollar loan spent on THE CRYSTAL I guess it would sound familiar if your guys at research did the research. The Denver building's first mock up was a crystal as well.
I guess all that matters in a second tier provincial or state capital with 4 million people is that you have a Daniel Libeskind just like Berlin has one.
No comments:
Post a Comment