KGB
September 17th, 2005, 07:37 PM
From today's Star....
Hard hats and kid gloves
As the ROM renovation proceeds, construction and conservation inevitably bump elbows. But the future is clear, writes Christopher Hume: Acres of glass are replacing yesterday's `black box'
CHRISTOPHER HUME
The steel-toed boots don't make it easy, but visitors must tread carefully these days at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Halfway through its $211 million renovation and remake, the venerable Toronto institution has reached the point where workmen in hard hats are toiling beside conservators in white lab coats. Crews from Germany assemble display cases next to a Chinese team replicating a section of a historic imperial palace. Nearby, heavy equipment is parked next to priceless Ming artifacts that date back centuries. A forklift sits beside a pair of ancient tomb guardians that gaze indifferently on their surroundings.
But those surroundings are changing fast. Located in the oldest part of the museum, the 1911 west wing, these carved stone guardians will soon be ensconced in a soaring, light-filled space of remarkable transparency. Though much public attention has been focused on the Daniel Libeskind addition, the Crystal, that multifaceted study in angularity that will soon become the new face of the ROM, the rebuilding process also includes full restoration of the museum's two original wings, east and west, which are being returned to something approaching their former glory.
When they reopen in late December, both will be unrecognizable. For decades, the walls, windows and ceilings were hidden behind acres of drywall. Large spaces were chopped up and any sense of the buildings as they once were was lost. Though the alterations were made for the best reasons — conservation, safety, fashion — they added little to the "ROM experience."
"The language of the new galleries will be very large," says ROM president and CEO, William Thorsell. "It will be the language of architecture, rooms within rooms. We didn't want them filled with all kinds of little pieces."
In fact, the refurbished galleries will be wide-open spaces but for the display cases now being installed. Designed and manufactured by Glasbau-Hahn, an internationally respected Frankfurt-based firm that specializes in museum work, these cases, some of them room-sized, are almost invisible. Built almost entirely of glass, they seem to disappear the closer one gets.
The assumption here is that the objects themselves are of paramount interest; they are the reason people visit museums in the first place. The intention is to show these artifacts as simply and clearly as possible. The object tells the story and the labels explain the object. Those labels, nearly 20,000 of them, are now being prepared.
The west wing, whose freshly revealed windows overlook Philosopher's Walk, will house the ROM's Asian galleries — Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The layout was determined by the location of the three Chinese murals installed back in the 1930s. The oldest and largest of the three, The Paradise of Maitreya, is now being cleaned.
So how do you clean a 13th-century mural painted on dry clay?
"Very carefully," answers conservator Molly McLean, one of a team of four that has been working on the piece since June.
Though McLean won't discuss details of the cleaning solution — "people might try it at home"— she says the main job is removing pollution and salt deposits. Given that the mural measures 10.7 by 3 metres, this is easier said than done.
"We're here till December," McLean says. "It has to be finished by then."
All around the conservators, the Glasbau-Hahn team assembles display cases, some of them large enough to live in. Huge sheets of glass are propped in place using a unique machine that has giant suction cups where others might have a bucket or forklift. It is a slow, painstaking process.
Every case has its own environmental controls; that means each one is fed by pipes bringing in air that contains varying amounts of moisture, depending on what's inside. For instance, wooden objects need up to 50 per cent humidity, while stone pieces are kept dry.
The other major conservation concern is light, which can do enormous damage to materials such as textiles and paper. This is why the galleries were turned into black boxes in the first place. Thanks to changes in technology and attitude, light is no longer considered the enemy.
As Dan Rahimi, executive director of gallery development, explains, the answer lies in placing objects appropriately and in using high-tech, computer-controlled screens that rise or fall depending on light conditions. This is especially important on the west side of the building, where the afternoon sun can be intense. But as Rahimi points out, all the lumens in the world won't damage ceramics or stone.
For many visitors, however, one of the most exciting additions will be a reconstruction of a section of a 16th-century imperial palace from the Forbidden City in Beijing. Last week, a group of seven carpenters from the Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture arrived in Toronto to install the structure.
Later, they will be joined by a second group of Chinese craftsmen to complete the project. Using authentic techniques and materials, they are erecting the entrance and partial roof of a building originally inhabited by a high-ranking royal prince.
The structure was first built in China, then dismantled and shipped here. It is made of huge cedar logs harvested in Manchuria, the last place where trees large enough could be found. The building is made of wood, which is then covered in a plaster-like substance made of crushed bricks, tung oil, hemp fibre and pig's blood. When it dries, the whole thing will be painted in colours that were historically reserved for imperial use.
As senior curator Klaas Ruitenbeek points out, the members of the construction team, who live in small villages outside the Chinese capital, learned their skills from their fathers and grandfathers. Though they use mechanical equipment in the building process — an electric crane hoists the enormous carved logs into position — the approach is to replicate the "how" as much as the "what."
"These men come from families that have been doing this work for generations," says Ruitenbeek, who also translates for the team. "They will need seven to eight weeks for the installation, which is unique in the world. The ROM's Chinese collection is so vast that it makes sense for us to undertake a project of this nature."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the museum, the east wing is being remade in equally dramatic style. Built on Queen's Park in the early 1930s, its richly carved facades have been the face of the ROM ever since. But much of the space in the wing was given over to uses that always seemed incompatible with the dignity and promise of the original architecture. For example, the northeast corner of the east wing, one of the prime locations within the ROM, was occupied by Druxy's, which operated a dreary eatery that felt more like something one would find in a bus station than one of the country's leading cultural institutions. The new cafeteria will be in the level below, which will add space for diners as well as room above for exhibits.
The east wing itself will become the new Canadian First Peoples Gallery.
Objects long displayed on the lower floor will be moved upstairs and given pride of place. Here, too, display cases are being assembled and windows revealed. The new gallery extends north from the Rotunda, formerly the main entrance to the museum, all the way to where Druxy's was. The old ROM store will be moved to the Crystal, where it will be bigger and more visible.
The Rotunda, arguably the most impressive and ornate space at the ROM, will be transformed into a café. The ticket counters and information desk have been reduced to a heap of rubble, now awaiting removal. Even in its current, somewhat chaotic state, it's clear the Rotunda was much compromised by the changes and additions made over the decades.
To passersby, however, the big changes appear to be happening on the ROM's north side, where it faces Bloor St. That, of course, is where the Crystal is under construction. So far, it comprises a series of massive triangular forms made of steel beams that point skywards. The last beam was put in place July 12, but that was really only the start. Since then, the main task has been to pour the concrete floors, a job that involved erecting hugely complex scaffolding. Once that's complete, the cladding will be attached and the space finally enclosed.
Though that work won't be finished until next summer, it's already possible to discern what the layout will be, especially at ground level. Not only is the sheer size of the addition surprising, so is the extent of the plaza to be created on Bloor in front of the museum. This area has been unused for so long it comes as a shock — a very pleasant shock — to see how large this public piazza will be.
Like so much associated with the new ROM, something old and familiar will become new and fresh. We might have looked a thousand times, but soon we will see it for the first time.
Hard hats and kid gloves
As the ROM renovation proceeds, construction and conservation inevitably bump elbows. But the future is clear, writes Christopher Hume: Acres of glass are replacing yesterday's `black box'
CHRISTOPHER HUME
The steel-toed boots don't make it easy, but visitors must tread carefully these days at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Halfway through its $211 million renovation and remake, the venerable Toronto institution has reached the point where workmen in hard hats are toiling beside conservators in white lab coats. Crews from Germany assemble display cases next to a Chinese team replicating a section of a historic imperial palace. Nearby, heavy equipment is parked next to priceless Ming artifacts that date back centuries. A forklift sits beside a pair of ancient tomb guardians that gaze indifferently on their surroundings.
But those surroundings are changing fast. Located in the oldest part of the museum, the 1911 west wing, these carved stone guardians will soon be ensconced in a soaring, light-filled space of remarkable transparency. Though much public attention has been focused on the Daniel Libeskind addition, the Crystal, that multifaceted study in angularity that will soon become the new face of the ROM, the rebuilding process also includes full restoration of the museum's two original wings, east and west, which are being returned to something approaching their former glory.
When they reopen in late December, both will be unrecognizable. For decades, the walls, windows and ceilings were hidden behind acres of drywall. Large spaces were chopped up and any sense of the buildings as they once were was lost. Though the alterations were made for the best reasons — conservation, safety, fashion — they added little to the "ROM experience."
"The language of the new galleries will be very large," says ROM president and CEO, William Thorsell. "It will be the language of architecture, rooms within rooms. We didn't want them filled with all kinds of little pieces."
In fact, the refurbished galleries will be wide-open spaces but for the display cases now being installed. Designed and manufactured by Glasbau-Hahn, an internationally respected Frankfurt-based firm that specializes in museum work, these cases, some of them room-sized, are almost invisible. Built almost entirely of glass, they seem to disappear the closer one gets.
The assumption here is that the objects themselves are of paramount interest; they are the reason people visit museums in the first place. The intention is to show these artifacts as simply and clearly as possible. The object tells the story and the labels explain the object. Those labels, nearly 20,000 of them, are now being prepared.
The west wing, whose freshly revealed windows overlook Philosopher's Walk, will house the ROM's Asian galleries — Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The layout was determined by the location of the three Chinese murals installed back in the 1930s. The oldest and largest of the three, The Paradise of Maitreya, is now being cleaned.
So how do you clean a 13th-century mural painted on dry clay?
"Very carefully," answers conservator Molly McLean, one of a team of four that has been working on the piece since June.
Though McLean won't discuss details of the cleaning solution — "people might try it at home"— she says the main job is removing pollution and salt deposits. Given that the mural measures 10.7 by 3 metres, this is easier said than done.
"We're here till December," McLean says. "It has to be finished by then."
All around the conservators, the Glasbau-Hahn team assembles display cases, some of them large enough to live in. Huge sheets of glass are propped in place using a unique machine that has giant suction cups where others might have a bucket or forklift. It is a slow, painstaking process.
Every case has its own environmental controls; that means each one is fed by pipes bringing in air that contains varying amounts of moisture, depending on what's inside. For instance, wooden objects need up to 50 per cent humidity, while stone pieces are kept dry.
The other major conservation concern is light, which can do enormous damage to materials such as textiles and paper. This is why the galleries were turned into black boxes in the first place. Thanks to changes in technology and attitude, light is no longer considered the enemy.
As Dan Rahimi, executive director of gallery development, explains, the answer lies in placing objects appropriately and in using high-tech, computer-controlled screens that rise or fall depending on light conditions. This is especially important on the west side of the building, where the afternoon sun can be intense. But as Rahimi points out, all the lumens in the world won't damage ceramics or stone.
For many visitors, however, one of the most exciting additions will be a reconstruction of a section of a 16th-century imperial palace from the Forbidden City in Beijing. Last week, a group of seven carpenters from the Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture arrived in Toronto to install the structure.
Later, they will be joined by a second group of Chinese craftsmen to complete the project. Using authentic techniques and materials, they are erecting the entrance and partial roof of a building originally inhabited by a high-ranking royal prince.
The structure was first built in China, then dismantled and shipped here. It is made of huge cedar logs harvested in Manchuria, the last place where trees large enough could be found. The building is made of wood, which is then covered in a plaster-like substance made of crushed bricks, tung oil, hemp fibre and pig's blood. When it dries, the whole thing will be painted in colours that were historically reserved for imperial use.
As senior curator Klaas Ruitenbeek points out, the members of the construction team, who live in small villages outside the Chinese capital, learned their skills from their fathers and grandfathers. Though they use mechanical equipment in the building process — an electric crane hoists the enormous carved logs into position — the approach is to replicate the "how" as much as the "what."
"These men come from families that have been doing this work for generations," says Ruitenbeek, who also translates for the team. "They will need seven to eight weeks for the installation, which is unique in the world. The ROM's Chinese collection is so vast that it makes sense for us to undertake a project of this nature."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the museum, the east wing is being remade in equally dramatic style. Built on Queen's Park in the early 1930s, its richly carved facades have been the face of the ROM ever since. But much of the space in the wing was given over to uses that always seemed incompatible with the dignity and promise of the original architecture. For example, the northeast corner of the east wing, one of the prime locations within the ROM, was occupied by Druxy's, which operated a dreary eatery that felt more like something one would find in a bus station than one of the country's leading cultural institutions. The new cafeteria will be in the level below, which will add space for diners as well as room above for exhibits.
The east wing itself will become the new Canadian First Peoples Gallery.
Objects long displayed on the lower floor will be moved upstairs and given pride of place. Here, too, display cases are being assembled and windows revealed. The new gallery extends north from the Rotunda, formerly the main entrance to the museum, all the way to where Druxy's was. The old ROM store will be moved to the Crystal, where it will be bigger and more visible.
The Rotunda, arguably the most impressive and ornate space at the ROM, will be transformed into a café. The ticket counters and information desk have been reduced to a heap of rubble, now awaiting removal. Even in its current, somewhat chaotic state, it's clear the Rotunda was much compromised by the changes and additions made over the decades.
To passersby, however, the big changes appear to be happening on the ROM's north side, where it faces Bloor St. That, of course, is where the Crystal is under construction. So far, it comprises a series of massive triangular forms made of steel beams that point skywards. The last beam was put in place July 12, but that was really only the start. Since then, the main task has been to pour the concrete floors, a job that involved erecting hugely complex scaffolding. Once that's complete, the cladding will be attached and the space finally enclosed.
Though that work won't be finished until next summer, it's already possible to discern what the layout will be, especially at ground level. Not only is the sheer size of the addition surprising, so is the extent of the plaza to be created on Bloor in front of the museum. This area has been unused for so long it comes as a shock — a very pleasant shock — to see how large this public piazza will be.
Like so much associated with the new ROM, something old and familiar will become new and fresh. We might have looked a thousand times, but soon we will see it for the first time.