Herald Square | 385 Congress St | Portland

Perhaps some more texture in the gray would help. I'm excited about this hotel. It's from the Fathom Companies, which is Jim Brady. I'm confident he's going to top both the Press and Canopy hotels, his other visions. And if these two top floors are a restaurant and bar with views of the Old Port and harbor, wow. I think it's nothing really other than wow here. He's smart. He will have another design iteration. It's not Maine in Maine, as I like to say. Think back to where Portland was ten years ago. Ten years from now, perhaps another level above where we are at now. Things seem to be headed in that direction.
 
Still a very nice looking building, I was definitely a big fan of this rendering (attached below). I feel as though the brightness with the grays and whites would compliment the surrounding government buildings more than this dark color scheme.
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I'm guessing that the renderings in the MDP were mainly to show massing, since the design of the hotel released just weeks later in the site plan looks completely different. So I think it's unlikely they were planning to build anything resembling the MDP renderings, which is fine by me since I think they look more like Tampa than Portland, ME.

Hopefully the other phases of the development will complement the hotel in design and style (and not take forever to come to fruition).
 
Interesting - I really like the idea of the weathered metal siding, I don't think we have that anywhere else in Portland? Large or small scale? My initial feeling is it only works with the dark brick though, I'm not sure I like the weathered metal/limestone/terra cotta combination - a little too khaki for me. But it may look better in person - and I get the nod to the existing structure. My bigger concern is what they did to the Congress St side - compared to the massings we have been looking at, this feels very closed off/unwelcoming to the general public. But maybe they aren't planning on the retail anymore? I also worry about how dark it could be in the courtyard - the other structure would almost have to be much lighter/brighter for it to work. But then condo owners will be looking at a very dark brick wall. But at least there are windows, the west elevation (which will face the senior housing?) is largely a flat black surface.

Here are two more slides I found interesting:

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Overall a pleasing "look" and the variety of quality materials creates a feeling of a quality development. I hope they could still improve the street-level facades however, where the building just looks like a hulking garage with long blank walls along the sidewalks facing City Hall and Merrill Aditorium. Without the mid-block through-street from the original plan, which offered a potential sight-line between Myrtle and Pearl, this "wall" feeling is only going to get longer as the Cumberland Avenue tower fills in.
 
I'd have been fine with Tampa tbh. I've never been a fan of lots of brick on contemporary buildings (I think it works best when you're doing what I would call a "high res" facade, one with lots of details like the older buildings in town), and I feel that the city's brick "theme" (really an accident of history) turned into a fetish a long time ago. Plus as a personal preference I just am not a fan of earth tones.
 
Personally, I find the masonry on the superstructure a bit too dark. Not terrible, but a bit too much contrast with City Hall. I would love to see a more granite / limestone / light brick façade for these buildings, which would compliment City Hall, the Press Building and the courthouses very nicely.

In my experience, the faux-industrial weathered metal paneling usually ends up looking fairly drab and cheap on a lot of buildings.
 
Interesting - looks like something you might find in Seattle or the west coast. The white of the original mockups were very Miami.

It looks kind of sexy and I like that it's different from everything else in town. Redfern's Federal Street Tower is matchy-matchy with Portland Square etc.

Portland needs something different. But is this too different? I don't know. It is DARK, but I don't hate it.
 
DanielPWM19 said:
Interesting - looks like something you might find in Seattle or the west coast. The white of the original mockups were very Miami.

It looks kind of sexy and I like that it's different from everything else in town. Redfern's Federal Street Tower is matchy-matchy with Portland Square etc.

Portland needs something different. But is this too different? I don't know. It is DARK, but I don't hate it.
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I feel like the original is very San Diego....but that is my point of reference. I don't do Miami....or Florida for that matter.
 
DanielPWM19 said:
Interesting - looks like something you might find in Seattle or the west coast. The white of the original mockups were very Miami.

It looks kind of sexy and I like that it's different from everything else in town. Redfern's Federal Street Tower is matchy-matchy with Portland Square etc.

Portland needs something different. But is this too different? I don't know. It is DARK, but I don't hate it.
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Is it any darker than, say, the Hiawatha?
 
We all know that the concept and the actual can become dramatically different. The original two-dimensional designs of the Kaplan Thompson multi-family Passivehaus building next to Franklin Arterial became much different. Not nearly as good, most might say. It looks a little weird--too green, though they probably intended it to be as a kind physical existing metaphor.
 
Max said:
Bunch of documents have been uploaded to their site plan application for Phase 1 - the hotel. No indication in any of these documents that the condo building (Phase 1A or 2 or whatever they're calling it) will be built simultaneously. Anyway the design is very different from what was presented in the master development plan materials -- there's some limestone around the base, then it's a dark glazed brick for the bulk of the building plus a metal panel scheme over the corner windows at Congress / Myrtle. I'm not opposed to this direction of design, my main issue initially is that black / dark brick scheme looks pretty boring on the long sides, I hope they break it up a little with more color.

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Looks like every other damn building that's been put up in the US in the last 10 years. Absolutely nothing original in this design. It could have been stunning. Now it's a black hole.
 
PlantArch said:
Looks like every other damn building that's been put up in the US in the last 10 years. Absolutely nothing original in this design. It could have been stunning. Now it's a black hole.
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Give them a few more tweaks. This is Jim Brady's development. He won't build something blah. I think his last one, The Canopy by Hilton is good. Not great, but good. But I do think that if they build this into something spectacular, Portland goes up a level. What other city in New England is building this type of new hotel? Only in Boston. That's it.
 
Max said:
Bunch of documents have been uploaded to their site plan application for Phase 1 - the hotel. No indication in any of these documents that the condo building (Phase 1A or 2 or whatever they're calling it) will be built simultaneously. Anyway the design is very different from what was presented in the master development plan materials -- there's some limestone around the base, then it's a dark glazed brick for the bulk of the building plus a metal panel scheme over the corner windows at Congress / Myrtle. I'm not opposed to this direction of design, my main issue initially is that black / dark brick scheme looks pretty boring on the long sides, I hope they break it up a little with more color.

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Note to Fathom and JNS before they go carving the address in stone: “The site is on Congress STREET and there is, to my knowledge, no Congress AVENUE in Portland, Maine.”
 
On a scale of one to ten I'd give the new design a seven and I do prefer it over the Florida vibe from the previous renderings but also feel it's a little too dark overall.
 
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Looking through some of the Site Plan packet materials...it looks like they intend to resurface a good portion of the block and create "interim parking and landscaping" for the remainder of the site not included in Phase I...This makes me a bit concerned that the future residential phases may be a bit further in the future than initially hopped.

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