"The Royal Ontario Museum is situated among ivy-covered University of Toronto colleges and faculty buildings and a cluster of cultural institutions transformed by Toronto's architectural reawakening, early in the 21st century - the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Gardiner Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario College of Art and Design, and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. In this landscape, the Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal rose to completion in 2007. The flagship of Renaissance ROM, an initiative of growth and renewal, it restores the logic of the Museum's original Beaux Arts master plan. The earliest ROM, now the Philosophers' Walk Building, opened in 1914, Additions followed in 1933, 1968, 1984, and 2007." "In this textual and photographic study, Kelvin Browne analysesthe evolution of ROM architecture and illuminates the buildings the tangible form and expression of the times and the bold visions of the Museum's founders and leaders."--Jacket.