ROM Italian exhibit postponed by construction delays

Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum has postponed the opening and changed the location of an exhibit designed to showcase its $200-million renovation, blamingdelays in construction.

The ROM is facing problemsgetting construction materials for the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the huge extension designed by architect Daniel Libeskind that looms over neighbouring Bloor Street.

The layers of foam insulation covered in foil that are to waterproof the Crystal are being made in Poland, says Francisco Alvarez, ROM's director of communications.

The waterproof cladding has to be in place before a final aluminum layer is added, he said, but work is beingpushed backuntil the materials are delivered.

"The work is very complex and ambitious, and we want to get it right," ROM spokeswoman Marilynne Friedmann said. "Unfortunately we need more time."

Italian Arts & Design: The 20th Century, an exhibit of more than 350 Italian works of art and industrial design, will now open Oct. 28, a week later than anticipated.

And it won't be in the 17,000-square-foot Garfield Weston Exhibit Hall, the largest space in the gallery redesign in the lower level of the museum.

Instead, it will be in a new exhibit area being called the Centre Block on the third floor of the museumthat used to house the Rome Gallery and the Gallery of Islam, as well as other smaller spaces.

The Italian exhibit was to have opened the Garfield Weston hall, but work on the huge space cannot go ahead until waterproofing is in place, Alvarez said.

Instead, the ROM has stepped up work on the Centre Block to open a space in time for the show, which goes on to a museum in Italy after it endsin Toronto in January 2007.

Work on the Crystal, scheduled to be completed in August, is one to two months behind schedule.

But the ROM is still anticipating the full renovation of the building will be completed by June 2007.