Construction for ROM revitalization underway

A project to bring the Royal Ontario Museum into the future is currently underway.

Construction began on the OpenROM project began in February 2024 and the $130 million renovation is expected to take three years. It will be funded by private philanthropy, including in part by a $50 million donation, the largest in the museum’s history by the Hennick Family Foundation.

The Ontario government is providing “ongoing operational support” during the project.

The revitalization project will include a newly designed Bloor Street entrance that will featured an expansive canopy, and floor-to-ceiling glass entryway.

A new four-storey atrium, named the Hennick Commons, will feature a 2,400 square foot forum, where visitors can to enjoy performances and programming that will include live music and hands-on learning.

The reimagined main floor will also be free for everyone once completed.

There will be a water feature that will wrap around the heritage façade that will transform based on the different seasons.

A multi-level lily pad staircase will be constructed in the forum and will offer three accessible overlook platforms and another 6,000 additional feet of new gallery space will be available on the second and third levels after the project is completed.

The revamped ROM is expected to completed in 2027, but will remain open to the public while construction is happening.

During construction, the Bloor Street entrance to the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal will be closed; however, the Weston Entrance on Queen’s Park remains open to welcome all visitors to the Museum.

In an interview when the project was first announced, Toronto-based architect Siamak Hariri, who is leading the project, said he will honour the building’s past while moving it into the future.

“We’re not building a new building. That’s clear,” Hariri said at the announcement. “But we always had this in mind that the old and the new must be unified and knit together, but that there does need to be a bold new freshness to be instilled.”

The ROM was last transformed in 2007 by architect Daniel Libeskind, who designed the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal — a bold expansion to the heritage building that drew accolades from some corners and groans from others.

With files from The Canadian Press