Toronto Star

If nothing else, 2007 was the year Toronto's Cultural Renaissance hit its stride. The main event was the opening of the Royal Ontario Museum's Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Designed by New York-based architect Daniel Libeskind, the $400-million addition offended many, pleased a few, but in either case, it raised the stakes hugely. This isn't a city given to risk-taking, but what's often overlooked is that Libeskind's radical remake of the ROM addresses the urban condition as much as institutional revitalization. The result is a building that has reconnected with the city, and that's fully a part of the urban scene. "It's a building that invites experimentation," says ROM CEO and president William Thorsell. "But it's also one that fully engages the city." Just across the road from the ROM, the compact Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art found new life as the jewel in Toronto's cultural crown. Redesigned by KPMB, this is the urban project par excellence, filled with exhilarating spaces and exquisitely integrated, it could serve as a model for everything that follows.