Reimagining Portland’s museum — inside the four PMA expansion proposals — Portland Museum of Art

This post appears in the Portland Phoenix.

The Portland Museum of Artwork is a postmodernist landmark on the city’s Congress Square. The museum is now planning an even extra extraordinary architectural landmark that may upstage the handsome brick façade with its signature quartet of arches.

Back again in 1983, the Portland Museum of Art replaced the aged Libby Developing office environment with the $8.2 million, 63,000-sq.-foot Charles Shipman Payson Developing. Forty yrs later, the museum strategies to double its house with a $45 million, 60,000-square-foot expansion up coming doorway to the Payson Making, replacing the outgoing Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine at 142 Absolutely free St. (which moved to Thompson’s Level) with a single of 4 structures proposed by the finalists in an intercontinental style opposition.

Billed as “Imagining the Upcoming Maine Landmark: A 1st Look at the Long run PMA,” the ultimate-four assortment is the subject of an exhibition at the museum (by way of Dec. 11) and portion of its $100-million growth task.

In accordance to PMA director Mark Bessire, the museum requires extra room both of those to show its expanding assortment and to accommodate raising community use. 

“We don’t have the scale to companion with the museums we want to partner with,” claimed Bessire, including that PMA’s premier gallery is 4,500 sq. feet whilst main touring reveals commonly involve 8,000 sq. feet of exhibition space. 

Then, also, the museum only has one general public restroom for site visitors, which numbered roughly 175 thousand per year prior to the pandemic. A lot more group teams are making use of museum areas, and the Payson Developing was not intended to have a gift shop or cafe, each of which now occupy hallway areas.

To remedy the space scarcity, PMA opened a layout levels of competition in summer season of 2022, which attracted 104 design and style groups (250 corporations in all) from 20 nations. Museum leadership “put big significance” on the dilemma of “how do we develop fairness inside of a present day museum,” Bessire explained. Close to 50 % of the companies that submitted to the competitiveness and 100 percent of the finalists are led by ladies or persons of coloration. A 12-member jury chosen four finalists – Adjaye Associates of Ghana, London and New York LEVER Architecture of Portland, Oregon MVRDV of Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Toshiko Mori of New York Metropolis.

Though there are no Maine firms amid the finalists, all 4 have chosen Scott Simons of Simons Architects in Portland as their architect of record, which means his organization, in Simons’ text, will “work with them to produce the style notion more, to get ready the construction paperwork, and to administer development of the setting up.”

The PMA jury will start off its deliberations in December, but the new wing is not anticipated to be concluded until 2026.