My Husband and I had the honour of attending an epic Indian wedding at the ROM. Sadly, despite having lived in Toronto for some 10+ years and actually, literally, running past the ROM sometimes twice per day a good 4-5 days per week, I've never actually been, not since I was a kid anyway.
The new(ish) Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition was my motivation to get my act together and revisit the ROM but still, I hadn't found a good time to do it.
The wedding reception (consisting of some 550 guests) took place in the Crystal. It served as a fantastic venue space. You could walk around touring the nearby exhibits if you needed to take a break from all the Bollywood dancing.
Many people, especially Toronto/Annex "lifers" frown upon the Crystal, citing it is "impractical" or "ugly". My question is why everything in Toronto has to be practical.
It's a tourist destination, for the most part, why shouldn't it be a bit glitz, glam and intrigue? There are lots of beautiful and impractical buildings in North America. Has anyone seen Philadelphia's City Hall? Utterly ridiculous, but gorgeous. Or the Guggenheim? How you can you call an atrium practical when it's one of the worst uses of space ever? But people go. And they take pictures. And they buy things in the gift shop. And that's what it's all about. And have you seen OCAD? Before we go calling something, using the same land space and attached to an existing, longstanding structure "impractical", how about a giant checkered floor on 50 foot stilts? Like really. It reminds me of Twin Peaks.
Anyhow, the Crystal is fabulous. It's a much needed update to an already beautiful building and one we should be proud of, as a city and not lament. read more