As an architect who has been involved in the historic preservation realm in Portland for 35 years, I encourage the Portland Museum of Art expansion project team to incorporate 142 Free St. into the proposed design. The creation of the Spring Street and Congress Street historic districts involved thorough and informed evaluations that resulted in the designation of 142 Free St. as a contributing building in both districts. This building should be valued as a work in the museum’s architectural collection, which, including 142 Free St., consists of five buildings now listed as contributing to or landmarks in the Congress Street and Spring Street historic districts.
PMA has been a good steward of its architectural collection, up until now. If it continues that commitment with the adaptive re-use of 142 Free St., our art museum would join the Peabody-Essex Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MASSMOCA, the Colby and Bowdoin museums of art, the Clark Art Institute, and other top-ranked New England art museums that beautifully integrate their historic buildings and contemporary architectural works into their programming and their contexts. PMA administrators and board members should turn their creative design team to the task of weaving 142 Free St. into the unique, diverse, historic, contributing fabric of the PMA campus.
Malcolm Collins
member, Maine Historic Preservation Commission
Freeport
The opinions expressed here do not reflect those of other MHPC members or staff.
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