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109-421: Starting in 1978, there was a decline in attendance that lasted for four years while major construction was being undertaken at its sibling institution, the adjacent Royal Ontario Museum . This work also entailed the demolition of part of the planetarium's facilities. Though attendance picked up when the museum reopened in 1984, the planetarium was forced to close on November 5, 1995, due to provincial budget cuts to

218-538: A Governor-General's Award in Architecture . In 1989, activists complained about its Into the Heart of Africa exhibit, which featured stereotypes of Africans, forcing curator Jeanne Cannizzo to resign. Beginning in 2002, the museum underwent a major renovation and expansion project dubbed as Renaissance ROM. The Ontario and Canadian governments, both supporters of this venture, contributed $ 60 million toward

327-482: A coelacanth , a Rafflesia flower and many other rare species. Included among these specimens is Bull , a southern white rhinoceros that became a famous conservation success story for his species. There are also recently extinct species displayed, including specimens of a passenger pigeon and a great auk , as well as skeletons of a dodo and a moa with a specimen of a moa egg, an elephant bird egg, and many other recently extinct species. The gallery presents

436-502: A "typical" planetarium projector of the 1960s was the Universal Projection Planetarium type 23/6, made by VEB Carl Zeiss Jena in what was then East Germany . This model of Zeiss projector was a 13-foot (4.0 m)-long dumbbell-shaped object, with 29-inch (740 mm)-diameter spheres attached at each end representing the night sky for the northern and southern hemispheres. Connecting the two spheres

545-498: A blue tinge. An image of the Milky Way was created by using drum-type projectors that were studded with unfocused pinprick-sized holes based on photographic images of our galaxy. Specific projectors could imitate the light changes of such variable stars as Algol or Omicron Ceti , and other projectors could produce images of the constellations, of specific historical comets , compass points and other astronomical phenomena. When

654-548: A dynamic, immersive experience with three core themes that hopefully will make a lasting impression on visitors." The Tallgrass Prairies and Savannas is a part of the gallery that features one of the most endangered and diverse habitats in Ontario. The display features examples of the regions and the efforts by the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry to maintain and restore

763-662: A far greater selection of stars. Additional projectors can be added to show twilight around the outside of the screen (complete with city or country scenes) as well as the Milky Way . Still others add coordinate lines and constellations , photographic slides, laser displays, and other images. The OMNIMAX movie system (now known as IMAX Dome) was originally designed to operate on planetarium screens. Companies that make (or have made) planetarium projectors include Carl Zeiss Jena (Germany), Spitz (US), Goto and Minolta (Japan), Evans & Sutherland (US), Emerald planetariums (Israel) and Ohira Tech (Japan). A good example of

872-413: 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 since 1973 as heritage buildings of Toronto. In 2005, a major renovation of the heritage wings saw the galleries made larger, windows uncovered, and the original early 20th-century architecture made more prominent. The exteriors of

981-494: A friend and associate on the board of International Nickel . McLaughlin donated $ 2 million for the building's construction, and gave an additional $ 1.15 million as an ongoing endowment. The University of Toronto , which owned and operated the Royal Ontario Museum prior to becoming a separate, provincially funded body, donated land adjacent to the museum. The building was constructed in an area that had formerly been

1090-582: A fully digital projection system, in which a single projector with a fish eye lens, or a system of digital video or laser video projectors around the edge of the dome, are used to create any scene provided to it from a computer. This gives the operator tremendous flexibility in showing not only the modern night sky as visible from Earth , but any other image they wish (including the sky as visible from points far distant in space and time). While many projection systems maintain their large single or multiple projectors, other systems cater to portable planetariums, like

1199-506: A fun and interactive space. People of all ages can explore touchable specimens and interactive displays while gallery facilitators help visitors discover the living world around them. Mossy frogs, a touchable shark jaw, snakeskin, and a replica fox's den are some of the objects that connect young visitors to the diversity and interdependence of plants and animals. The Roloff Beny Gallery of the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) hosts

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1308-539: A park belonging to the museum, and also required the demolition of a mansion at 86 Queens Park that had been the residence for the President of the University of Toronto. The building was designed by architects Allward and Gouinlock and by the engineering firm Stone and Webster Canada, Ltd. in 1965. Colonel McLaughlin unveiled a model of the building at his 94th birthday celebration, which was held in his honour at

1417-980: A part of the Teck Suite of Galleries include the Barrick Gold Corporation Gallery, the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Gallery, the Gallery of Gems and Gold and the Vale Gallery of Minerals. The Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals explores the rise of mammals through the Cenozoic Era that followed the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs . There are over 400 specimens from North America and South America in addition to 30 fossil skeletons of extinct mammals. The gallery's entrance begins with mammals that arose shortly after

1526-625: A part of the university until 1968, when the museum and the McLaughlin Planetarium were separated from the university to form a new corporation. On 26 October 1968, the ROM opened the McLaughlin Planetarium on the south end of the property after receiving a CA$ 2 million donation from Colonel Samuel McLaughlin . In December 1995, the ROM closed the McLaughlin Planetarium as a result of budgetary cutbacks imposed by

1635-491: A particular star or planet dipped below the artificial horizon , a gravity-based mercury -filled shutter would be activated, blocking out the light. Since the release of the Evans & Sutherland Digistar in 1983, a single projector with a fish eye lens was able for the first time to show stars from points of view other than Earth's surface, travel through the stars, and accurately show celestial bodies from different times in

1744-821: A pathway for pedestrians to travel safely across the Crystal. 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

1853-663: A period of months. The first phase of the Renaissance ROM project, the "Ten Renovated Galleries in the Historic Buildings", opened to the public on 26 December 2005. The architectural opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal took place less than 18 months later, on 2 June 2007. The final cost of the project was about CA$ 270 million. The original building was listed by the City of Toronto on

1962-431: A whole. The Patricia Harris Gallery of Costumes and Textiles holds about 200 artifacts from the ROM's textile and costume collections. These pieces, which range from the 1st century BC to the present day, are rotated frequently due to their fragility. Throughout time, textiles and fashion have been used to establish identity and allow inferences to be drawn about a culture's social customs, economy and survival. The gallery

2071-486: A wide variety of objects from around the world. These range from Stone Age implements from China and Africa to 20th-century art and design. In July 2011, the museum added to this collection when a number of new permanent galleries were unveiled. Both the Government of Canada and the Royal Ontario Museum committed $ 2.75 million toward the project. The galleries are located on the first, third and fourth levels of

2180-493: Is an exhibition space on Level 1, connecting the east wing of the museum with its western half. The gallery serves as the building's main lobby past the museum's admission area. As opposed to most galleries at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Samuel Hall Currelly Gallery is not dedicated to a single subject. Instead, the gallery exhibits an assortment of items from the museum's collection representing them as

2289-508: Is devoted to showcasing transformations in textile design, manufacturing, and cultural relevance throughout the ages. Weaving, needlework, printed archeological textiles and silks are all located in this space. The CIBC Discovery Gallery was designed to be a children's learning zone until its closure in 2023. It housed three main areas: In the Earth, Around the World and Close to Home. The space

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2398-590: Is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year, making it the most-visited museum in Canada . It is north of Queen's Park , in the University of Toronto district, with its main entrance on Bloor Street West . Museum subway station is named after it and, since a 2008 renovation, is decorated to resemble the ROM's collection at

2507-524: Is to house the university's Department of History, its Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, the Institute of Islamic Studies and the research arm for the Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies, and a new 250-seat performance hall for the university's Faculty of Music. In the eponymous short story in the 1982 collection The Moons of Jupiter by Alice Munro , the protagonist visits

2616-719: The Burgess Shale in British Columbia and Mistaken Point in Newfoundland and Labrador. The gallery is divided into six sections: "A Very Long Beginning" ( Precambrian ), "The Origin of Animals" ( Cambrian Explosion ), "The Bustling Seas" ( Ordovician , Silurian , and Devonian ), "The Green Earth" (Devonian and Carboniferous , including both the Mississippian and the Pennsylvanian), "Before

2725-465: The Florida -based firm Audio Visual Imagineering, whose shows are also seen at other planetaria. Corporate events were promoted through The Planetcorp and included such events as a CTV Fall season launch as well as corporate AGMs of Sun Microsystems and product launches from NEC and other companies. Other exhibits in the revamped Astrocentre included a new 50-seat mini-theatre, wall murals illustrating

2834-480: The Government of Ontario . It is Canada's largest field-research institution, with research and conservation activities worldwide. With more than 18 million items and 40 galleries, the museum's diverse collections of world culture and natural history contribute to its international reputation. It contains a collection of dinosaurs , minerals and meteorites; Canadian and European historical artifacts; as well as African , Near Eastern , and East Asian art. It houses

2943-467: The Great Depression , an effort was made to use primarily local building materials and to make use of workers capable of manually excavating the building's foundations. Teams of workers alternated weeks of service due to the physically draining nature of the job. In 1947, the ROM was dissolved as a body corporate , with all assets transferred to the University of Toronto. The museum remained

3052-500: The Greater Toronto Area . Originally, there were five major galleries at the ROM, one each for the fields of archaeology , geology , mineralogy , paleontology and zoology . In general, the museum pieces were labelled 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 a variety of specimens from different parts of

3161-628: The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao for using so-called "starchitecture" to attract tourism. The main lobby is a three-storey high atrium, named the Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court. The lobby is overlooked by balconies and flanked by the J. P. Driscoll Family Stair of Wonders and the Spirit House, an interstitial space formed by the intersection of the east and west crystals. Installation of

3270-642: The University of Toronto . Its first assets were transferred from the university and the Ontario Department of Education , coming from its predecessor, the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts at the Toronto Normal School . On 19 March 1914, the Duke of Connaught , also the governor general of Canada , officially opened the Royal Ontario Museum to the public. The museum's location at

3379-577: The Astrocentre used to be. Due to impending construction at the adjacent Royal Ontario Museum, the contract was not renewed in late 2002, and the Children's Own Museum has been looking for a new location ever since. During its three-year tenure in that building, it hosted nearly a half-million visitors. The institution still exists, though it currently (as of 2009) has no physical home. It is currently seeking suitable space to use in future endeavours. In

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3488-472: The Big Bang and inflation, and the new (at the time) theories of physics that postulated that space has up to 11 dimensions; some of these shows featured creative and novel sound tracks composed by composer-in-residence Mychael Danna . While the main attraction continued to be the astronomical shows put on during the day, in the early 1980s, regular laser light shows became a staple evening's entertainment in

3597-562: The Government of Ontario. The space temporarily reopened from 1998 to 2002, after being leased to Children's Own Museum . In 2009, the ROM sold the building to the University of Toronto for CA$ 22 million and ensured that it would continue to be used for institutional and academic purposes. The second major addition to the museum was the Queen Elizabeth II Terrace Galleries on the north side of

3706-662: The Great Dying" ( Permian ) and "Dawn of a New Era" (Triassic). Notable specimens include the Burgess Shale , orthocones and sea scorpions and other fossils from Ontario and the holotype of Dimetrodon borealis . The ROM also has a Zuul crurivastator skeleton from the Judith River Formation in Montana in its dinosaur collection, which is one of the most complete examples of an ankylosaurid specimen ever found. The world culture galleries display

3815-430: The McLaughlin Planetarium's role as Toronto's public planetarium, though using a much smaller facility. On April 14, 2004, the directors put out a call "for expressions of interest" to redevelop the space occupied by the planetarium. Seeking additional funding to cover the costs of the second phase of the expansion and redevelopment of the museum, the directors of the museum had planned on erecting luxury condominiums on

3924-562: The McLaughlin Planetarium, prior to going on a tour of the exhibits in the Royal Ontario Museum. King, Henry C. The McLaughlin Planetarium . Royal Ontario Museum, 1968. ISBN   978-0-8885-4064-5 The museum is affiliated with: CMA , CHIN , and Virtual Museum of Canada . Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum ( ROM ) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto , Ontario , Canada. It

4033-471: The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. The structure was created by architect Daniel Libeskind , whose design was selected from among 50 finalists in an international competition. The design of the Crystal required the Terrace Galleries to be torn down (the curatorial centre to the south remains). Existing galleries and buildings were also upgraded, along with the installation of multiple new exhibits over

4142-573: The Mineralogy Gallery. On the wall opposite from the ticket booth and coat check was an evocative quote from Dante Alighieri Divine Comedy . Admission to either facility allowed visitors to see exhibits in both buildings, though a planetarium show cost extra. The planetarium projector was the focal piece of equipment at the planetarium. It was a Universal Projection Planetarium type 23/6, made by Kombinat VEB Carl Zeiss in Jena , in what

4251-652: The Municipal Heritage Register on 20 June 1973, designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act in 2003, with a Heritage Easement on the buildings. Much of the museum's Bloor Street–facing side is being renovated since February 2024, as well as correcting architectural deficiencies to the Crystal while respecting Libeskind's original architectural design. Renovations include an expanded skylight to provide more natural lighting to its atrium, as well as an additional staircase within

4360-519: The R.O.M. announced that it had sold the building and the site for $ 22 million to the University of Toronto, who originally planned to demolish the existing building and build additional facilities for its law and business faculties. On September 9, 2014, the University of Toronto announced a new museum and academic complex. It was to include the Jewish Museum of Canada , a Faculty of Music performance hall, research centres and History department academic space. In its early stages of planning and approvals

4469-486: The R.O.M. while the Lee-Chin Crystal wing was under construction. Ever since the planetarium's closing, there have been groups that have lobbied for its reopening. At first, efforts concentrated on reopening the existing facility, but in more recent years, the focus has shifted to establishing a wholly new permanent planetarium facility elsewhere in downtown Toronto. Smaller educational planetaria still exist in

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4578-711: The RASC, and suggested a site near the existing Royal Ontario Museum , adding that significant financial support would have to come from outside the university to make it possible. In November 1964 Canadian businessman Colonel Samuel McLaughlin announced plans for donating money directly towards establishing a planetarium in Toronto. He was inspired by the recent construction of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City , named after Charles Hayden , who had been

4687-519: The ROM citing lowered attendance figures, proponents of the planetarium have alleged that the Conservative Ontario provincial government of the time, led by Mike Harris , was looking for an instant and visible $ 600,000 cut to the ROM's operating budget. No succeeding provincial government has shown an interest in reversing this decision. Shortly after the announcement, the exhibits, seating and wiring were dismantled or removed. Some of

4796-434: The ROM stated that the closure of the planetarium was due to a combination of falling attendance and a declining interest in space, and that the closure was necessitated by provincial budget cuts. The decision came as a surprise to many, as attendance had rebounded in recent years, and the planetarium was one of few in North America at the time that was turning a profit. The closure meant that 40 people lost their jobs. Despite

4905-518: The ROM: fascinating visuals, architectural artifacts and environment, art, correspondence between object and space and stories within the visuals. The C5 restaurant Lounge is designed by IV Design Associated Inc. In October 2007, the Lee-Chin Crystal was reported to have suffered from significant water leakage, causing concerns for the building's resilience to weather, especially in the face of

5014-807: The Royal Ontario Museum's contemporary art exhibitions. This high-ceilinged multimedia gallery of approximately 6,000 sq ft (600 m ) serves as the ICC's main exhibition space, typically featuring exhibits that tie in contemporary culture and events, with the museum's natural and world collection. The gallery has featured exhibitions on fashion photography, street art, modern Chinese urban design and architecture, and contemporary Japanese art. In 2018, it exhibited Here We Are: Black Canadian Contemporary Art , featuring Black Canadian artists such as Sandra Brewster , Michèle Pearson Clarke , Sylvia D. Hamilton , Bushra Junaid , Charmaine Lurch , and Esmaa Mohamoud . The natural history galleries are all gathered on

5123-491: The Toronto region. At some time after 1995, Seneca College closed its Roberta Bondar Earth and Space Centre planetarium. The Ontario Science Centre on Don Mills Road operates a high-resolution digital planetarium with funding from CA, Inc. , and the Royal Ontario Museum also offers a small, portable, inflatable planetarium for school groups. Since the closing, the Ontario Science Centre has taken over

5232-399: The adjacent museum was closed for a period of two years during the most intensive phase of its second major expansion . In all, the construction phase lasted for four years, from 1978 to 1982. In particular, some school groups that could justify the expense of seeing the museum and a planetarium show in a single day's outing had difficulty justifying a visit solely to the planetarium. Some of

5341-405: The architectural elements—the deep cornice, decorative top, eave brackets—add to this strength that the ROM possessed, as it was purely a structure with the function of collecting, but not of exhibiting. During the mid-2010s, the eastern entrance was used as a café. Since late 2017, the eastern entrance is undergoing renovation to become an alternate entrance, complete with the addition of ramps to

5450-557: The atrium, as well as the reconstruction of the entrance plaza to be level to allow for street performances. Designed by Toronto architects Frank Darling and John A. Pearson , the architectural style of the original building (now the western wing) is a synthesis of Italianate and Neo-Romanesque . 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 . The eastern wing facing Queen's Park

5559-484: The automated "star shows" that appeared in this time interval include: "Planets, Stars, and Galaxies", a general show about our knowledge of astronomy at the time; "Mars, the Journey Begins", the story of the exploration of Mars (from prehistory to the then-present), and possible future plans for terraforming Mars; "Beyond the 4th Dimension", which explored, in layman's terms, the 4 dimensions of General Relativity,

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5668-484: The bat cave reopened on 27 February 2010 after extensive renovations. The 1,700-square-foot (160 m ) exhibit most notably includes a recreation of St. Clair Cave located in Saint Catherine Parish of central Jamaica. The original cave was formed by an underground river that flowed 30 metres (98 ft) below ground through the limestone and was three kilometres long. This cave was then recreated in

5777-519: The building and a curatorial centre built on the south, which started in 1978 and was completed in 1984. 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 , the CA$ 55 million expansion took the form of layered terraces, each rising layer stepping back from Bloor Street. The design of this expansion won

5886-423: The building is a surprise and a pleasant one; the somewhat complicated ornament of the façade 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

5995-474: The building is the dome, which rises 25.3 meters (83 ft) from the ground, and has an outer diameter of 27.7 meters (91 ft). The dome structure is layered, with an outer waterproofed casing of reinforced concrete 4 centimeters (2.5 inches) thick, and an inner concrete dome that is insulated by a layer of urethane foam. The projection dome was separate from the outer dome, and was 23 meters (75.4 ft) in diameter. Made of curved aluminum sheets, it

6104-492: The city. Typical shows included "Laser Floyd : Dark Side of the Moon", "Laser Zeppelin ", "Sgt. Peppers Laser Light Show" and later, such shows of more contemporary musical artists such as "Laser Depeche Mode ", "Laser NIN " and "Laser Nirvana ". These shows were held under the name "Laserarium" rather than that of the planetarium, though the laser-light and star shows were held in the same building. The laser shows were created by

6213-476: The conservation of Earth's biodiversity . The Life in Crisis gallery is organized into three zones exploring the central themes: Life is Diverse, Life is interconnected, and Life is at Risk. Anthony Reich, principal at Reich+Petch, called biodiversity "a big subject that's become more relevant to everybody. The challenge was how to tell this big story in a 10,000-square-foot (900 m ) space. We decided to design

6322-408: The creation of prerecorded shows. Most visitors to the facility would have seen an automated 40- to 45-minute audio/visual show on a particular space-related topic. Two types of shows were typically alternated on a daily basis: one aimed at families with young children and another aimed at older children and adults. Typical shows aimed at both audience types were built around themes such as space travel,

6431-405: The eastern entrance. The eastern entrance is a few steps from the main entrance to Museum station . Designed by Toronto architect Gene Kinoshita, with Mathers & Haldenby, the curatorial centre forms the southern section of the museum. Completed in 1984, it was built during the same expansion as the former Queen Elizabeth II Terrace Galleries, which stood on the north side of the museum before

6540-485: The edge of Toronto's built-up area, far from the city's central business district , 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 main entrance facing out onto Bloor Street housing five separate museums of the following fields: Archaeology, Palaeontology, Mineralogy, Zoology, and Geology. It cost CA$ 400,000 to construct. This

6649-593: The exhibit is Gordo , one of the most complete examples of the Barosaurus in North America and the largest dinosaur on display in Canada. The Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life opened in 2021 in the former Peter F. Bronfman Hall, and focuses on the evolution of life in the Paleozoic from billions of years ago up to the Late Triassic . It highlights many fossil sites and collections from Canada, such as

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6758-474: The expansion increased, it was realized that its north annex would need to be demolished in order to make way for the museum's need for a wing devoted to curatorial facilities. As a result, a theatre entrance, sound studio, workshop, passenger elevator and a third of the existing gallery area of the planetarium had to go. The remaining gallery area was removed in March 1978 to make space for temporary space to replace

6867-617: The experience of walking through a cave as a colony 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 two main categories of galleries present in the ROM: the Natural History Galleries and the World Culture Galleries. The Samuel Hall Currelly Gallery

6976-428: 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 day, 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 recreate

7085-474: The extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. A highlight of this gallery is the sabre-toothed nimravid Dinictis . The James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs and Gallery of the Age of Mammals feature many examples of complete non-avian dinosaur skeletons, as well as those of early birds, reptiles, mammals and marine animals ranging from the Jurassic to Cretaceous periods. The highlight of

7194-563: The façade 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

7303-498: The heritage buildings were cleaned and restored. The restoration of the 1914 and 1933 buildings was the largest heritage project undertaken in Canada. The renovation also included the newly restored Rotunda with reproductions of the original oak doors, a restored axial view from the Rotunda west through to windows onto Philosophers' Walk and ten renovated galleries comprising a total of 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq ft). In

7412-512: The late Louise Hawley Stone, who donated a number of artifacts and various collections to the museum. In her will, she transferred C$ 49.7 million to the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust, created to help with the upkeep of the building and to the acquisition of new artifacts. Replacing the Queen Elizabeth II Terrace Galleries was the controversial "Michael Lee-Chin Crystal", a multimillion-dollar expansion to

7521-420: The master plan designed by Darling and Pearson in 1909, the ROM took a form similar to that of J. N. L. Durand's ideal model of the museum. It was envisioned as a square plan with corridors running through the centre of the composition, converging in the middle with a domed rotunda. Overall, it referenced the upper-class palaces of the 17th and 18th centuries and aimed at having a strong sense of monumentality. All

7630-496: The meantime the organization has participated in various children's events around the city. Later in 2002, a traveling exhibit of costumes, props and models used in the making of Peter Jackson 's Lord of the Rings trilogy ran for four weeks at the planetarium. This was the last public exhibition housed in the building. Up until 2007, the building has primarily served as office space and storage for exhibits that have been moved out of

7739-472: The merits of its angular design. On its opening, Globe and Mail architecture critic Lisa Rochon complained that "the new ROM rages at the world", was oppressive, angsty and hellish, while others—perhaps championed by her Toronto Star counterpart, Christopher Hume—hailed it as a monument. Some critics have ranked it as one of the ten ugliest buildings in the world. The project also experienced budget and construction time over-runs, and drew comparisons to

7848-470: The museum based on ROM fieldwork conducted in Jamaica in 1984. A large amount of bat research has been conducted with support from the ROM. In 2011, the ROM hosted a "bat workshop" connected with the 41st Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research. The Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth's Treasures features almost 3,000 specimens of minerals, gems, meteorites and rocks ranging from 4.5 billion years ago to

7957-431: The museum designed by Daniel Libeskind , including a new sliding door entrance on Bloor Street, first opened in 2007. The Deconstructivist crystalline form is clad in 25 percent glass and 75 percent aluminum , sitting on top of a steel frame . The Crystal's canted walls do not touch the sides of the existing heritage buildings but are used to close the envelope between the new form and existing walls. These walls act as

8066-610: The museum in September of that year. It was hoped that the building would be open by Canada's centennial in 1967, but construction delays forced the opening to October 26, 1968. In addition to what was built, the original plans also called for a multi-story parking garage, a 550-seat conventional movie theatre, and a direct underground link to the Museum subway stop. These features were deemed too costly and were never built. The building contained four floors: The dominant feature of

8175-617: The museum. Planetarium projector A planetarium projector , also known as a star projector , is a device used to project images of celestial objects onto the dome in a planetarium . Modern planetarium projectors were first designed and built by the Carl Zeiss Jena company in Germany between 1923 and 1925, and have since grown more complex. Smaller projectors include a set of fixed stars, Sun, Moon, and planets, and various nebulae . Larger machines also include comets and

8284-459: The museum. The planetarium's exhibits, artifacts and theatre facilities were subsequently dismantled and dispersed. For a brief period it housed the Children's Own Museum. It is now used solely for offices and as a storage facility for the museum. Early in 2009, the R.O.M. announced that it had sold the building and site to the University of Toronto, which plans to demolish the existing building to make way for additional facilities. In September 2014,

8393-504: The mythical stories behind the constellations , and around Christmas -time, a show that investigated theories on stellar explanations for the Star of Bethlehem . A listing from 1970 includes shows titled The Story of Eclipses , which looked at how solar eclipses occur and their scientific importance, Man and the Zodiac which explored the history of mythology and astrology with regard to

8502-524: The need to protect the natural environment and the need to educate the public about the main causes of extinction —overhunting, habitat destruction , and climate change . In September 2009, the gallery received an Award of Excellence by the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario . In addition to showcasing the museum's natural collection, the Schad Gallery also aims to promote

8611-545: The new structure's proximate first winter. Although a two-layer cladding system was incorporated into the design of the Crystal to prevent the formation of dangerous snow loads on the structure, past architectural creations of Daniel Libeskind (including the Denver Art Museum) have also suffered from weather-related complications. Collections at the ROM not displayed at the ROM itself or in other museums are stored in various unclassified and offsite locations around

8720-408: The night sky, and The Planet Venus which surveyed the history of the planet in mythology, the planet's motion across the sky and featured imagined views from its surface. When plans were drawn up for a major expansion of the adjacent Royal Ontario Museum in the mid-1970s, it was initially assumed that the planetarium, then still a comparatively new facility, would be left untouched. As the scope of

8829-463: The original planetarium projector over the years, allowing for special effects that could show close-up displays of specific planets, and the Sun and Moon projectors could replicate the experience of a solar or lunar eclipse . The projector could be controlled by a console where an individual presenter would provide specific talks or lectures. By the mid-1970s, automation features were added, which led to

8938-483: The passenger pigeon. These exhibits were later moved to the Schad Gallery. The Royal Ontario Museum purchased a beached blue whale off the coast of Newfoundland at Trout River and displayed its skeleton and heart as a ROM-original travelling exhibit until 4 September 2017. The Bat Cave is an immersive experience for visitors that presents over 20 bats and 800 models in a recreated habitat, with accompanying educational panels and video. Originally opened in 1988,

9047-410: The past and future. In more recent years, planetaria — or dome theaters — have broadened their offerings to include wide-screen or "wraparound" films, fulldome video , and laser shows that combine music with laser-drawn patterns. The newest generation of planetariums such as Evans & Sutherland 's Digistar 7 , Global Immersion 's Fidelity or Sky-Skan 's DigitalSky Dark Matter , offer

9156-405: The permanent galleries of the Lee-Chin Crystal began mid-June 2007, after a ten-day period when all the empty gallery spaces were open to the public. Within the Crystal there is a gift shop, C5 restaurant lounge (closed until further notice), a cafeteria, seven additional galleries and Canada's largest temporary exhibition hall in a museum. The galleries added to the Crystal gave different aspects to

9265-514: The phases of the moon, plus an increasing number of hands-on exhibits and interactive computer-driven displays. There were also displays of astronomical globes, an orrery and pictures of the planets, many taken by contemporary space probes. The Astrocentre also featured the world's first commercial Stellarium , a slowly rotating display containing a 3D representation of almost a thousand stars in our immediate stellar neighbourhood. The McLaughlin Planetarium closed on November 5, 1995. The president of

9374-402: The planetarium and takes in a show, and then goes on to visit the Royal Ontario Museum. She reports to her father, who is on his deathbed in a Toronto hospital, that she enjoyed the show but found the planetarium to be "a slightly phony temple" to the stars. In the opening chapter of Robert J. Sawyer 's 2000 science fiction novel Calculating God , an alien spaceship lands directly in front of

9483-415: The platform level; Museum station's northwestern entrance directly serves the museum. Established on April 16, 1912, and opened on March 19, 1914, the ROM has maintained close relations with the University of Toronto throughout its history, often sharing expertise and resources. It was under direct control and management of the University of Toronto until 1968, when it became an independent Crown agency of

9592-513: The present. These items were found in many different locations including the Earth, Moon and beyond, and represent the Earth's dynamic geological environment. Notable specimens at the Teck Suite of Galleries include fragments of the Tagish Lake meteorite . The Light of the Desert , the world's largest faceted cerussite , is another notable piece displayed in the gallery. Galleries that are

9701-647: The project lacked complete funding at the time of the announcement. In January 2016, the university announced it would proceed with construction of what is now to be called the Centre for Civilizations and Cultures, without the participation of the Jewish Museum of Canada because the UJA "needed to focus on more pressing funding priorities." The project is to be designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro of New York in collaboration with architectsAlliance of Toronto. The centre

9810-404: The project, and Michael Lee-Chin donated $ 30 million. The campaign aimed not only to raise annual visitor attendance from 750,000 to between 1.4 and 1.6 million, but also to generate additional funding opportunities to support the museum's research, conservation, galleries and educational public programs. The centrepiece of the project was a deconstructivist crystalline-form structure called

9919-473: The second floor of the museum, containing collections and examples of various specimens such as bats, birds and dinosaurs. The Life in Crisis: Schad Gallery of Biodiversity, designed by Reich+Petch and opened in late 2009, features endangered species , including specimens of a polar bear , a giant panda , a white rhinoceros , a Burmese python , Canadian coral , a leatherback sea turtle ,

10028-572: The signs and paintings were recovered by the RASC, which had a permanent workspace located within the facility, and are now on display at the E.C. Carr Astronomical Observatory in The Blue Mountains, Ontario and at David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario . The original Zeiss-Jena projector was bought as a museum piece by York University for the sum of $ 1, subsequently dismantled, and placed into storage. More recently,

10137-400: The space currently occupied by the planetarium. They abandoned this proposal on November 7, 2005, in the face of widespread public opposition to the construction of a tall residential building in a district of low-rise public buildings. Although in 2007, R.O.M. director William Thorsell reportedly was planning to revive the scheme to place a residential tower on the site. On January 26, 2009,

10246-572: The tallgrass prairies and savannas. The Gallery of Birds has on display many bird specimens from past centuries. The Gallery of Birds is dominated by the broad "Birds in flight" display where stuffed birds are enclosed in a glass display for visitors to experience. Dioramas allow visitors to learn about the many bird species and how environmental and habitual changes have put bird species in danger of extinction. Pull-out drawers let visitors examine eggs, feathers, footprints and nests more closely. The gallery included exhibits of other extinct species such as

10355-426: The terrace galleries were replaced with the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. The architecture is a simple modernist style of poured concrete, glass, and pre-cast concrete and aggregate panels. The curatorial centre houses the museum's administrative and curatorial services and provides storage for artifacts that are not on exhibit. In 2006, the curatorial centre was renamed to Louise Hawley Stone Curatorial Centre in honour of

10464-484: The university announced preliminary plans for new facilities to be built on the site. Proposals for building a planetarium in Toronto date back to 1944, but serious planning only started in 1962, thanks to a bequest made by a former member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). In May 1964 the chairman and the President of the University of Toronto gave their support for the idea to

10573-406: The university has offered the mothballed projector to other planetaria seeking parts to repair their existing electro-mechanical planetarium projectors. The planetarium has been reopened for other purposes since it closed its doors as a planetarium in 1995. On March 5, 1998, an initial three-year agreement was signed that brought the Children's Own Museum to the second floor of the planetarium, where

10682-537: The workshop and studio. Significant changes to the planetarium were made during this time, including the addition of a new spiral staircase that led straight to the Theatre of the Stars, an adjacent elevator for the elderly and disabled, and a larger gallery space on the second floor. The planetarium remained at normal levels of service during this renovation period, but attendance dropped significantly, particularly when

10791-520: The world in long rows of glass cases. Insects of the same genus were 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

10900-400: The world's largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia with more than 150,000 specimens. The museum also contains an extensive collection of design and fine art, including clothing, interior, and product design, especially Art Deco . The Royal Ontario Museum was formally established on April 16, 1912, and was jointly governed by the Government of Ontario and

11009-422: Was lap jointed to create a continuous spherical surface. The sheets were painted white and perforated with 2.5-millimeter (0.1 inch) holes, which were designed to let sound through and reduced echoes in the cavernous space. The building had two main entrances: a main entrance at ground level that faced east onto Queen's Park Drive, and a connecting passageway from the Royal Ontario Museum from what used to be

11118-473: Was a framework that held nearly 150 individual projectors, including those dedicated to the planets, the Sun, and specific stars. Each globe held representations of almost 4,500 stars per hemisphere. The "stars" were created by tiny holes that were punched into copper foil, ranging from 0.023 to 0.452 mm in size, the larger holes letting more light get through and thereby creating brighter star images. Two glass plates held this foil between them to create what

11227-485: Was built in a neo-Byzantine style with rusticated stone, triple windows contained within recessed arches and different-coloured stones 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 among neo- Byzantine buildings in North America,

11336-459: Was called a "star field plate". Each globe was illuminated using a 1,500-watt lamp that was located in its center. A number of aspherical condenser lenses were placed within each globe to focus the light onto the plates. Twenty-three of the most prominent stars had their own projectors, designed to project a small disk instead of pinpoint of light, and were also colored: Betelgeuse and Antares would appear reddish, Rigel and Spica would each have

11445-470: Was designed by Alfred H. Chapman and James Oxley . Opened in 1933, it included the museum's elaborate art deco , Byzantine-inspired rotunda and a new main entrance. The linking wing and rear (west) façade of the Queen's Park wing were originally done in the same yellow brick as the 1914 building, with minor Italianate detailing. This façade broke away from the heavy Italianate style of the original structure. It

11554-460: 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 . On 1 June 2007, the governor-general of Canada, Michaëlle Jean , attended the Crystal's architectural opening. This caused controversy because public opinion had been divided concerning

11663-434: Was inspired by the ROM's collections and enabled children to participate in interactive activities involving touchable artifacts and specimens, costumes, digging for dinosaur bones and examining fossils and meteorites. There was also a special area for preschoolers. The Patrick and Barbara Keenan Family Gallery of Hands-On Biodiversity introduces visitors to the complicated relationships, which occur among all living things in

11772-439: Was the first phase of a two-part construction plan intended to expand toward Queen's Park Crescent, ultimately creating an H-shaped structure. The first expansion to the Royal Ontario Museum publicly opened on October 12, 1933. The CA$ 1.8 -million renovation saw the construction of the east wing fronting onto Queen's Park and required the demolition of Argyle House, a Victorian mansion at 100 Queen's Park. As this occurred during

11881-430: Was then East Germany . The planetarium projector was a 13-foot (4.0 m)-long dumbbell-shaped object, with 29-inch (740 mm)-diameter spheres attached at each end representing the night sky for the northern and southern hemispheres. Connecting the two spheres was a framework that held nearly 150 individual projectors, including those dedicated to the planets, the Sun, and specific stars. Improvements were made to

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