Newspaper calls ROM’s architectural gem ugly, useless

The Royal Ontario Museum’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal has been called one of the new seven wonders of the world, but the Washington Post is suggesting a new moniker: ugly and useless.

Philip Kennicott, a culture critic with the Post, called the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal the worst new building of the decade in a column Sunday.

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, which opened in 2007 and was the centrepiece of a $270-million expansion, has been the subject of much debate from critics since world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind sketched the initial concept on a napkin. The building has a crystal shape, with no right angles and only one vertical wall, according to the ROM website.

It has received tremendous praise from some critics for its unique design. The influential Conde Nast Traveler, an American travel magazine, called the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal one of the new seven wonders of the world in 2008.

But it has also received a great deal of criticism, none more scathing than Kennicott’s.

“Libeskind’s addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto surpasses the ugliness of bland functional buildings by being both ugly and useless,” wrote Kennicott. “From the street it’s dramatic. But go inside and you need a map to move around its irrational and baffling dead spaces.”

The building was also ranked eighth on a list of the world’s 10 ugliest buildings, published by popular travel website VirtualTourist.com in November.

Libeskind and the Royal Ontario Museum could not be reached for comment.