OpenROM

OpenROM  is a sweeping architectural transformation of Canada’s largest museum, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto. The multi-faceted initiative will dramatically open the Museum up even more to the public, creating a thriving cultural and civic hub for the city. This high-profile project was initiated with a $50-million donation from the Hennick Family Foundation, the largest ever philanthropic gift to ROM.

​​The design reconfigures the 86,000sf ground floor and Bloor Street entrance and adds new gallery space on upper floors. The design seeks to re-introduce the ROM to Toronto by turning the museum inside out, bringing daylight and views deep inside to create porous connections with Bloor Street, within the ground floor public space and the galleries themselves. 

In addition to reimagining the core of the Museum, the project includes further enhancements to the exterior spaces. Animating a landmark intersection in Toronto, a new showcase water feature will wrap around the heritage façade at the corner of Bloor Street and Queen’s Park. This fountain will evolve with the seasons, changing from burbling water in the summer to cracked ice in the winter, a nod to frozen Canadian landscapes and the importance of sustainability.  

Anchoring the exterior will be a newly designed and fully accessible Bloor Street entrance, sheltered by an expansive, cantilevered bronze canopy. Building on the iconic Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, OpenROM will provide visitors with more immediate access to ROM’s world-class collection. Direct sightlines through new floor-to-ceiling glazing reveal artifacts and displays where ticketing functions exist presently. An oculus cut into the ceiling and lined in warm wood panels that radiate outwards, will draw visitors’ eyes upwards, offering views of the remarkable dinosaur galleries above.

Guided by a deep vista into the building, the foyer leads to the new heart of the Museum: Hennick Commons. Here, the soaring, four-storey atrium that connects the contemporary and heritage wings of the Museum, is capped with a high-performance diagrid glass ceiling, allowing natural light to cascade into this renewed space designed to be a living room for the city. Visitors will encounter a new, 2,400sf (223sm) forum for performances, programs, and hands-on experiences, and a café. 

The architectural centerpiece of OpenROM is a grand, three-level, lily pad staircase, which will offer whimsical wayfinding with three accessible overlook platforms for surveying the Museum. This network of stairs, ramps, and landings knits together old and new wings of the building to improve mobility and provide opportunities for programming. Openings in both the heritage and Crystal facades will introduce dialogue between gallery spaces across Hennick Common. The new limestone and wood floor will be levelled with two sets of short stairs and ramps, adding program versatility to this public space and 4,000sf (371sm) of new program area will be created within the Crystal allowing for greater connectivity.

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Hariri Pontarini Architects’ previous work at ROM, includes The Welcome Project (2019), which reconceived the open space surrounding the Museum, adding a performance terrace and plaza, and restoring the original entrance on Queen’s Park.