Liza’s Garden

This award-winning green roof garden was designed to commemorate one of the ROM’s major benefactors. Inaccessible by the public and comprising the main view from the Crystal’s former C5 restaurant, the garden is a visually kinetic outdoor space. The picturesque landscape is experienced from a single vantage point and functions as a kind of flattened diorama. Although static, the landscape evokes lushness and depth with a grid of trees and tilted beds to trap snow, leaves and rain to reflect the sky. Plantings are chosen to visually evoke lushness in an environment that can only sustain three inches of soil. The trees and tripods of wires create a topography of bird perches, bringing life to this mostly artificial garden.

The roof acts in several ways to enhance the sustainability of the ROM, through stormwater retention, reduction of the heat island effect, and the provision of a habitat for birds and insects. University of Toronto students in collaboration with ROM researchers have used the garden to study green room habitats.