Photo by Marc Lostracco/The Torontoist.com

Look familiar? No, it's not the DAM, rather these vertigo inducing shots are from the interior of the new Royal Ontario Museum's "Michael Lee-Chin Crystal" designed by Daniel Libeskind. The Torontoist website has an excellent spread on the new diggs with some stunning photos. The extension is named after Ontario Billionaire Lee-Chin who for the bargain price of $30 Million (Canadian, which is now actually worth something) secured a bit of history and a chance to hob-nob with the architect. From the article:

Libeskind is well aware of the controversy behind the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. "Yes, this building is ambitious," he said today, "but Toronto deserves nothing but an ambitious building."

Even Michael Lee-Chin wasn't entirely on-board with Libeskind's concept at first. "Initially, when I saw the design, I was most reticent," Chin says, but spending time with the architect convinced him. "It is a building that will inspire other architects to go further."

Without doubt it's a striking building, however after viewing the photo gallery in the article, I'm struck with how poorly it looks as a conduit for artwork. I'm wondering if that will be the ultimate Libeskind legacy.

Then it turned out the guy had already used this model in other cities, like Music Man Harold Hill whizzing through Iowa and conning all the locals with the same pitch. Did he tell some kids in his office to dust off the Denver template for Canadians?