Toronto Star

The ROM wasn't built in a day, and neither will its controversial addition, the Crystal. By the time the latest expansion of the Royal Ontario Museum is finished, sometime in the spring of 2006, it will have been under construction for 2 1/2 years. That's not unnaturally long for a project of this size, especially one of such extraordinary complexity. Indeed, building the Crystal is one of the most challenging construction jobs under way anywhere in North America. Designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, the $200-million project represents the state of the construction art. By Libeskind's own account, it couldn't have been built even a decade ago. The 90-degree corners, straight lines and perpendicular surfaces so characteristic of contemporary architecture are nowhere to be found in the Crystal. Instead, this is a design that involves precariously sloped walls, slanting floors and impossibly complicated angle joints.