I am a member and supporter of the Portland Museum of Art. I think the museum is wrong to believe that tearing down the former Children’s Museum is the best choice for the Congress Square area. This building is attractive and historic. It ought to be preserved.
I encourage the museum to incorporate the older building into its plans, rather than blank out another stretch of street with a forbidding six- or seven-story structure. The resources they plan to add – community space, auditorium, maker space, etc. – do not necessarily require a new building, and some might easily fit into the old space. Others might be built without disrupting the old structure.
Museum officials say they plan green construction. What could be greener than reusing the building they already have?
This will take ingenuity – I would hope that’s a resource with which museum leaders are…
