My Italian immigrant grandfather, a World War I Marine Corps veteran, ran his barber shop for many years at 150-A Free St. in Portland – a building eventually swallowed up by the Portland Museum of Art without as much as a hiccup.
The Libby Building (152-160 Free St.), seen from the north in a postcard postmarked March 16, 1908, was built on a human scale and drew people together, Richard Craven says, but the Portland Museum of Art “replaced it with an out-of-scale, featureless brick wall.” Portland Public Library Digital Commons/Public domain
Today, the museum’s proposed new “improvement” is reminiscent of a time when the city of Portland was controlled by a small cabal of oligarchs. They had only the best interests of the city of Portland in mind, but, you see, their interests were all that mattered.
The craftsmanship in the old Libby Building lent major ambiance to Congress Square. It had the most beautifully paneled central staircase that I can remember. (My dentist was on the second floor with light, airy offices opening out onto the square.)
The building had a history, since it was originally the YMCA, and it was people-oriented. It gave Congress Square a sense of place, combining human and monumental scales working together.
But the museum replaced it with an out-of-scale, featureless brick wall (if you don’t count the prison-cell windows) dominating most nearby buildings; its topping circles mocked the dignified Roman arches of the former Libby Building. And it is a lifeless wall, with no street-level glass and an entrance off to the side. Once it was completed, the museum was aptly called the “Portland Mausoleum of Art” by a Press Herald contributor.
Light and air, goodbye.
Can this be mitigated by the museum’s planned new wing? Four design concepts have been shortlisted for the new wing at 142 Free St. Most of the finalist designs bypass the problem of the exterior by focusing on their beautiful interior spaces, ignoring the large impact their structure has in the Congress Square location.
The Portland Museum of Art. Joel Page/Staff Photographer, File
The Toshiko Mori entry is the only one that recognizes the look, feel and history of Portland’s Congress Square. Its choice is to preserve the Federalist frontage of the old Chamber of Commerce, free-standing inside a glass case as if another museum exhibit.
This does make the building look more like “‘home,” but it lacks integration into the day-to-day life of Congress Square. As a result, if this design is chosen, I bet money that it will be the first design element dropped from the project when the penny-pinching starts. The result will be stark.
As an institution, the Portland Museum of Art offers many beautiful and historic things inside its walls. The fact is that the vast majority of the public are not “members” and do not visit its interior frequently. But they do look at its exterior; some look at it every single working day. The museum needs to be mindful of this fact when making its decision.
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