Renovations to the Royal Ontario Museum will begin soon

The Royal Ontario Museum announced Wednesday that it plans an “architectural transformation” of its main floor as part of a three-year construction project that will begin early this year.

The OpenROM project will open the museum to the public “in a big way” and add 6,000 square feet of new gallery space on the second and third levels, the museum said in a press release.

The renovations include a redesigned Bloor Street entrance, which the museum says will “deepen the ROM's connection to the city.”

“OpenROM is more than a physical conversion; this is a huge leap forward for the Museum to become an even more welcoming and accessible space,” Josh Basseches, ROM director and CEO, said in a written statement.

“This is an opportunity to literally and figuratively open the doors of the museum and invite more people to experience all that the ROM has to offer. We want people from down the block and around the world to feel that this is a place where they can be inspired and belong.”

The museum will remain open during the three-year construction project, which was funded in part by a $50 million gift from the Hennick Family Foundation. Siamak Hariri of Toronto's Hariri Pontarini Architects is in charge of the renovation.

The museum said that once construction is complete, it will offer “continuous free access” to the main floor, based on a summer free main floor pilot program that was first introduced in 2022.

The ROM said that in addition to “re-imagining” the core of the museum, improvements are also being made to outdoor spaces, including a new water feature that wraps around the building's facade near Bloor Street and Queen's Park.