Royal Ontario Museum (2002-2006, projected)
Libeskind's addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto attempts to expand the role of museums as "public" spaces by breaking down the barriers between interior gallery space and the exterior urban environment. Parts of the new building's faÁade will be constructed with transparent materials that will allow people passing on the street a look inside the museum, and visitors to the museum a remarkable view of the bustling life on the street. Inspired by the crystalline forms in the museum's mineral collection, Libeskind's building, titled "The Crystal," consists of angular overlapping shapes that merge into one another and attach to and envelop the sides of the museum's earlier buildings.

© Miller Hare. Reproduced with the permission of Studio Daniel Libeskind