LEVER Architecture, Courtesy of Portland Museum of Art, Maine/Dovetail Design Strategists
The PMA Campus Unification and Expansion from Congress Square
In a low-key climax to an often-heated, months-long public debate, the Portland City Council on May 20 removed a downtown building's historic designation — and along with it a major obstacle to the Portland Museum of Art's (PMA) planned $100 million expansion in Maine's largest city.
The museum, which owns the 19th-century building at 142 Free St., had requested that it be reclassified as a "noncontributing structure" in the Congress Street Historic District. The change is necessary if the PMA, whose campus abuts the property, is to move forward with a massive build-out, according to Mainebiz.
Under the museum's plan, the old Free Street structure would be demolished to make room for a 60,000-sq.-ft. addition to the PMA, doubling its current footprint. The design of the new wing was chosen through an international competition and announced in January 2023.
Museum officials, together with Dovetail Design Strategists, a New York-based consultancy firm, selected LEVER Architecture — with offices in Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles — to lead the design team for the PMA campus expansion and unification project.
Both the Portland Historic Preservation Board and the Portland Planning Board had previously rejected the reclassification request. But with the final say, the city council on May 6 took up the matter in a marathon meeting that drew dozens of strongly worded comments from the public.
After approving a wording revision on May 20, council members voted 6-3 to approve the reclassification. Voting in opposition were Portland Mayor Mark Dion, and councilors Regina Phillips and Pious Ali, Mainebiz reported.
The proposal had faced months of opposition from a nonprofit group, Greater Portland Landmarks, and others who believe Free Street building has architectural significance. Opponents have said the building, constructed in 1830 but later renovated and modified, should remain a "contributing structure" under the city's historic preservation ordinance.
The structure has been used as a theater, a church and an office for an area chamber of commerce. More recently, it had been home to the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine until it moved to a newly built center at Thompson's Point in 2021.
The PMA purchased the property in 2019 and began using it for offices and storage after the Children's Museum & Theatre left.
Plans to expand the art museum to the adjacent site have provoked strong reactions, both from opponents and from PMA supporters and business advocates, the latter of whom believe the expansion would revitalize downtown Portland with hundreds of jobs and millions of tourism dollars.
LEVER Delivered a Design Utilizing Mass Timber
Following its selection in early 2023 as the PMA's lead designers, LEVER Architecture immediately began the process of designing a new museum wing as well as improvements to unify its existing campus of four architecturally significant buildings located in the heart of Portland.
"This is one of the most significant moments in the PMA's 140-year history," said Mark Bessire, the Judy and Leonard Lauder director of the Portland Museum of Art. "LEVER, and the team [it has] assembled, have demonstrated that they care deeply about our region's future, our unique arts culture and the needs of our communities. They share our values of courage, equity, service, sustainability and trust, and we can't wait to work with LEVER and our communities to imagine Maine's next great landmark."
LEVER's architects envisioned the museum to be built primarily from sustainable mass timber, one of the studio's defining characteristics that also happens to reflect the Portland museum's values and goals.
The timber used in the PMA design speaks to Maine's lumber industry heritage while reimagining its future as a hallmark of environmental stewardship, according to a museum press release.
Critically, mass timber is incredibly strong, durable and sustainable, with an ability to sequester carbon. Other sustainable building materials and practices, such as geothermal energy, will be explored as the project moves into future phases.
In addition to timber, LEVER designed a PMA building that uses terracotta and glass, and includes nods to Maine communities, history and culture.
For instance, the proposed curved roofline is designed to frame the sun as it rises and sets, in honor of Maine's Wabanaki communities (Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Nations) and the land they call Wabanakik, or Dawnland.
"The PMA's competition brief was a call to action to designers around the world to question what it means to truly design for people, for communities, and for a specific place in the world," explained LEVER Principal Chandra Robinson in 2023. "We would not have been able to challenge the idea of a museum without conceptualizing a new model of inclusive participation. Our teams' perspectives on Wabanaki culture, community engagement and universal accessibility were at the root of this design process."
Museum officials also noted that the campus envisioned by its designers responds to the community's calls for more flexible spaces. These include more barrier-free areas that make visiting and congregating at the PMA easy, opportunities for performance and special events, messy areas for children and families, and plenty of galleries that can display the museum's diversifying collection and exhibitions.
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