Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

Just came across this great site yesterday. Was searching for renderings for the proposed Hampton Inn @ Franklin and Fore and was impressed with the amount of content concerning downtown Portland's past, current and future projects. Thought I was the only person alive with an obsession with my hometown, you guys (especially Patrick and Corey) have proven me wrong!

Quick introduction. My name is Jim, I am a Portland native, grew up in the south due to my father's Marine Corps career, am retired military myself and currently work for the City of Portland. My favorite hobby and number one passion since I was a kid is downtown Portland. Have collected just about every newspaper clipping, photo, magazine article, and brochure concerning developments intown since 1975. Am also a huge booster of PWM's terminal expansion, am hopeful the Mega-berth gets funded this summer, and I also hope to see the Civic Center finally renovated/expanded or a new arena built before I get too old to enjoy it!

Would love to see a new landmark tower on the former Gannett property next to City Hall in the future. Thirty floors will never fly, but twenty would work well in my opinion. The entire stretch from Myrtle to Franklin on Congress frustrates me every time I walk or drive near the area, the barren parking lots need to go. My other pet peeve is is the current wasteland which is 3 and 4 Portland Square, can't wait until those remaining parcels finally get developed. Ugliest office building in Portland is still 511 Congress Street, number one on my list of structures needing a major makeover! Love the renovations to One Monument Square, contacted the Finard Properties and unfortunately they are planning on painting the crown instead of installing panels. At least it will blend in better than it does now!

I look forward to sharing information and opinions on my favorite city with all of you. Thanks and go Portland!
 
Portlander said:
Just came across this great site yesterday. Was searching for renderings for the proposed Hampton Inn @ Franklin and Fore and was impressed with the amount of content concerning downtown Portland's past, current and future projects. Thought I was the only person alive with an obsession with my hometown, you guys (especially Patrick and Corey) have proven me wrong!

Quick introduction. My name is Jim, I am a Portland native, grew up in the south due to my father's Marine Corps career, am retired military myself and currently work for the City of Portland. My favorite hobby and number one passion since I was a kid is downtown Portland. Have collected just about every newspaper clipping, photo, magazine article, and brochure concerning developments intown since 1975. Am also a huge booster of PWM's terminal expansion, am hopeful the Mega-berth gets funded this summer, and I also hope to see the Civic Center finally renovated/expanded or a new arena built before I get too old to enjoy it!

Would love to see a new landmark tower on the former Gannett property next to City Hall in the future. Thirty floors will never fly, but twenty would work well in my opinion. The entire stretch from Myrtle to Franklin on Congress frustrates me every time I walk or drive near the area, the barren parking lots need to go. My other pet peeve is is the current wasteland which is 3 and 4 Portland Square, can't wait until those remaining parcels finally get developed. Ugliest office building in Portland is still 511 Congress Street, number one on my list of structures needing a major makeover! Love the renovations to One Monument Square, contacted the Finard Properties and unfortunately they are planning on painting the crown instead of installing panels. At least it will blend in better than it does now!

I look forward to sharing information and opinions on my favorite city with all of you. Thanks and go Portland!
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Jim, Welcome! Your description of yourself sounds like me very much. My number one hobby is downtown Portland as well. I can't explain it any better than you already have. I can't keep track of all the news paper clippings I have retained, but I usually stash them somewhere I can refer to them for at least a few months. Have you seen the portland renderings thread on this website? It contains pictures of numerous portland projects. Also, I walked into the planning department at city hall, asked to view some renderings, and was personally spoken to by a city planner as he flipped through and explained detailed drawings of the project. nice thoughts on the office buildings, mega berth, and civic center -- all issues that interest me much. I look forward to your continued participation on here.
 
Oh, and Jim, you sound a lot like another member on here, Shazbat, who doesn't comment as much, but is a frequent visitor. He too has newspaper clippings going back some years, including originals and scanned versions of the Lincoln Square project in the Top of the Old Port parking lot from the late 1980s. The city was sprouting left and right and up in the late 1980s. Back bay tower, lincoln square, one portland square. Since then it seems to have changed its image back into a "town"
 
Patrick, thanks for the welcome. Portland's rebirth began with the addition of One Monument Square in 1970 and continued at a rapid pace until the completion of 2 Portland Square. Not too many cities across the country that are/were Portland's size had the amount of new development downtown that we did. I feel that era of new construction was primarily making up for 46 years of little or no commercial growth. After the Time and Temperature Building (Chapman Building) was completed in 1924, the only notable projects built downtown was Post Office Square (Maine National Bank) in 1955, and the WCSH Studios in the mid 60's.

Prior to 1969 (Franklin Towers), our skyline was limited to the Eastand, Time and Temp, Fidelity and City Hall. We've come along way since then, but I do regret the lack of a signature building in our skyline. Few people know that One Monument Square was originally planned as a 20 story tower in 1967 but was scaled down to 10 due to the questionable potential of downtown Portland's ability to make a comeback at that time. Still feel that One City Center should have been 5 floors taller which would have met that landmark building goal.

As far as Portland's image starting to revert back into a town, I think we are doing just fine considering the state of the economy. Addition of the Intermed Building, (should have been built on the spine instead the fringe) the Marriott, and the new Hampton Inn shows promise during tough times for developers. I am annoyed to hear that UNUM is considering expansion into Worcester when they should be investing in downtown Portland, their original hometown. We need to bend over backwards to maintain TD Bank's presence intown along with Pierce Atwood and we can't let the local naysayers get us down!
 
Yes I agree that, in light of economic circumstances, Portland is doing just fine from a development perspective. I guess what I meant by reverting back to a town is that rather than pursuing super projects and major office tenants, the city seems to be focusing more on parks, walkability, and pedestrian scaled projects. This not a bad thing, but I think it shapes the form of development into smaller more compact projects rather than huge aggressive projects and business. DO you have any renderings (were there any?) for the 20 story project? any in the news paper? Was the PPH even around back then? I wonder if the library would have anything on it? Manchester NH built a 20 story buildnig in the 70s, and its downtown has flopped.
 
Patrick, after an hour of searching I finally found the article. There are no renderings but according to the story it said bank offices (Casco Bank & Trust) will occupy the first floor, the next three floors would be used for parking for 200 cars and the top 16 floors would contain offices. Cost of the building would be about $5 million and will be built by Cabot and Forbes, a well know Boston development firm. Title of the article is "20 Story Bank Building Hailed By Council Chairman", dated October 7, 1966. If my memory is correct, I think it was from "The Evening Express" instead of the PPH. Councilman Charles W. Allen described the building as "the first exciting element in a new skyline for Portland and a long step forward toward the rebirth of the downtown business district".

Also found an article showing the original rendering of Back Bay Tower which was initially proposed as a 19 story building. I have another cool article which talks about the new exterior treatment to the top two and a half floors of the Time Temperature Building in the 80's. Prior to the refurbishing, the top floors looked terrible and did not match the original facade of the building at all. The additional floors are prefab construction and were actually put in place by helocopters in 1963! The Time and Temperature and the Maine Bank & Trust Buildings are my two favorite Portland structures. In my opinion, they helped put Portland on the map as an urban center visually and added a feeling of commercial strength and civic pride for many decades and continue to do so today.
 
Portlander! Wow! That is really interesting news! I consider myself kind of a trivia guy about this stuff and you just told me several facts I had never heard before. If I am not mistaken, Back Bay tower is 15 floors now, right? If you count the parking decks out back (which is kind of "cheating") then it sort of looks like its 18 floors. Somewhere on here, there is a picture posted by another member of the forum that shows Back Bay tower under construction, just before it was finished. The structure is topped out, but the windows are not all in place yet.

19 stories would have been interesting. Any idea why it was scaled down to 15? 1990 is the completion date listed on the internet (emporis.com) but I was still a kid living in South Portland at that time. I moved to Portland in 1992.

My Dad used to tell me stories about how he would park in the area that is now One City Center when he went to drink in the old port in the 1970s. They called that area the "Golden triangle" because of all its investment potential. I can see why. I like one city center and the surrounding landscape a lot. 20 stories for the one portland square would have been great. I thought that was one of the "newer" downtown mid rises, I never knew it was one of the pioneers. I was at walmart one time and saw a post card that showed the city skyline when one portland square was under construction.

I was reading a report from the City from 1990 which said that the downtown skyline needs to be broken up because of the monotony. All the structures are about the same height and it is boring. Currently, zoning along the high spine allows for a building of about 190 feet plus a bonus height for some sort of ornamental top.

I will try to look into those articles you mentioned at the library to see if I can get any information on them. Do you recall what the title of the article on Back Bay tower was? Great to have someone with your expertise in this history/trivia around! Thanks.
 
Patrick, that was 20 stories for One Monument Square completed in 1970, not One Portland Square. Back Bay Tower was scaled down to 15 floors if I remember correctly due to Federal grant money being involved and the developer's long delay in receiving financing for the project. It almost did not happen, I think it took almost 4 years from conception to reality.

I still have the original "Golden Triangle" Design Competition package that I received from City Hall in 1980 while I was stationed in Florida. Architects and planners from all over the country were invited to come up with ideas on how to develop the parcel and prizes were awarded for the top entries. One of the winner's design turned out fairly close to what eventually became One City Center.

Last I checked, the land to the east of Pearl Street to Franklin on Congress can support up to 215 ft with an additional 35/45 ft for an ornamental roof cap without a waiver. The DMR Group's down scaled tallest tower actually won approval for 265 ft in the late eighties. The parcel beside City Hall I think is 150 ft with extra allowance for the roof/mechanical space. Those limitations are general guidelines, if a developer has a solid proposal and financial backing, who knows what the City Council will approve in these lean times. As we have learned in the past, a new project better not block the views of the elderly living in Franklin Towers however!
 
IAM askin Portholer and other Portlands peeples if there being EVER goodskyskrper ANYWHEREPLACE that bein 300 foots or less!!! And.

IF NOT WHY ARE YOU WANTIN SUCH UGSLY STUMP IN YOUR FAIR. City!!! Beter to throw WINO mans into the rehabs and putting MORE bar and OUTSDORE CAFIES in this square. NOT crapola BAyBANk tower from Burlington. This NOT shysraper, not even in DSICK INCHES!!!
 
Ha! Yes, that's right. also, it better not create "wind tunnels" that would effect passers by. the stuff people complain about... It's not Chicago!

I don't know the specifics about the zoning ordinances, because it has been a while since I checked, but you are right; the City could choose to something different. These days, though, it seems like the council is full of a bunch of hippies instead of pro-business people (with some exceptions), and this gets back to my point about Portland becoming more of a "town" and less of a city, at least in terms of its current attitude.

Oh I see, thank you for clarifying about one portland square versus one monument square. Is that why One monument square is connected to the adjacent building, also roughly ten stories in height? Were they at one time supposed to be one continuous building? What were some of the other design proposals for the Golden Triangle competition? Sounds fascinating to hear about how the City used to approach things like this.
 
bostonbred said:
IAM askin Portholer and other Portlands peeples if there being EVER goodskyskrper ANYWHEREPLACE that bein 300 foots or less!!! And.

IF NOT WHY ARE YOU WANTIN SUCH UGSLY STUMP IN YOUR FAIR. City!!! Beter to throw WINO mans into the rehabs and putting MORE bar and OUTSDORE CAFIES in this square. NOT crapola BAyBANk tower from Burlington. This NOT shysraper, not even in DSICK INCHES!!!
Click to expand...

to answer your question(s):

shysnaperes be doing theat greatest height thing ever in palces porthole to there and back.
 
IAM seing your POInts . BUT. must spectfuly DISAGEREE that this BEING THE PLACE. You get FAT BOTTOM GIRL FOUR FEET TALL. Not Grisele Bunchkin stile.
 
Is it true that Portland has half built subway tunnels underground? There was an article referring to this somewhere on line. It said that Portland had intended to build a subway and scrapped the project halfway through.
If these tunnels exist, it would be a great opportunity to create a pedestrian network of tunnels, alot like toronto and montreal. Given the winter climate in Portland, an idea like this might be good for climate and the city's goal of becoming a walkable city. If the tunnels are alreayd there, then why not?
just an idea....
 
Todd, the only tunnel I know about runs under Congress Street from the Portland Press Herald Building on upper Exchange to the former newspaper printing plant diagonally across the street beside City Hall. I have been told by PPH employees that it is clean, well lit and wide enough to fit a car in it.
 
I agree pedestrian tunnels would be a good asset in the winter. However, I think it would be hard to sell the idea.
 
Do you recall the name of the article in which the original Back bay tower rendering at 19 stories was shown? What paper was it in, and what date? I would like to see if I could track down a copy.

Also, are you familiar with the 12 story apartment high rise proposed for the Oakdale neighborhood which never got built? Neighborhood opposition stopped the project, and that's about all I have ever heard. can't seem to see anything on line about it, either. Are there any other major projects you know about that might not be common knowledge to someone who only became interested in this stuff about 8 years ago? Thanks.
 
Portlander, welcome to the forum! In an earlier post Patrick pretty much nailed it with my part and inputs into the forum. Originally I'm from the Sanford / Shapleigh area. Since the early 80's I've collected pictures and clippings of Portland as my interest grew in buildings, skyscrapers and developement in general. I'm also very interested in developement in New England, Boston, Watertown, NY (my current home with the 10th Mountain Division) and anything in Maine. After partying too hard after high school and during my first semester at USM, I joined the Army and been there ever since. Like you, I hope to retire in 5 years or less and move back to Maine. Until then though I check this forum out almost daily for the latest updates and pics.

Glad you found the Archboston forum, this place has it all. When in comes to Portland, Partick and Corey tend to be our guides! Other input comes from me, M. Brown, Lrfox and some others. As for the doomed Lincoln Center proposals, I can remember the seniors pissin' and moanin' about it from Franklin Towers! It was pretty funny watch that actually! I was like.....really?

Back Bay towers, construction, 1990 (with my first camera!):
Copyofbackbaytowers.jpg
 
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SHAZBAT73, I appreciate the welcome and thank you for inputs here but more importantly for your service to our country! Noticed the Dulles office building from your profile and figured it was the Army that brought you to Watertown. My ex wife and I visited your "temporary" city several years ago and I gave it alot of respect for being a gritty mini hub for that region. My fondness for my hometown of Portland and U.S. cities in general began when I was just a kid. I am now 53, so I remember what it was like going downtown prior to the advent of the shopping mall with my parents. Main Street was a beehive of commerce and activity right out of Petula Clark's hit from the 60's "Downtown"! My father is a retired Marine which made growing up a constant change of urban environments such as Jacksonville, NC, Lancaster, PA, Bangor, ME, Philadelphia, PA, Connellsville, PA, and of course Portland/Sebago Lake ME for our summer vacations.

Due to my family not living in Portland after my early years, as I got older I got more curious about my birthplace. My parents were young and happy to get away from Maine and Portland, (decaying old seaport in the early 60's) so they were not much help with my growing thirst for knowledge on Maine's premier city. So the library became my avenue for information on Portland via World Book, Compton's, Collier and any other encyclopedia or publication I could get my hands on. After becoming an expert (at least I thought) on all things Portland at the seasoned age of 12, I got into the comparison mode which expanded my attention to all worthy cities in America with populations of 50,000 plus. Included Burlington, VT and Cheyenne/Casper WY out of respect as the largest city in their respective states and Lewiston and Bangor from my home state because I knew that Portland could bitch slap the both of them! No lack of civic pride here :)

Learned at an early age that you can not judge a city based only on it's population, or tallest building, enplanements at it's airport, seating capacity at it's arena, tonnage at it's port, amount of retailers in the regional mall, circulation at the library system, number of Renoir's at the museum, ranking as a media and TV market, amount of parks and bike trails, number of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, size of the symphony orchestra, how many Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts units are located in the downtown proper. It is a balance of most of these attributes along with a strong sense of community pride that makes an urban center great. To have a successful business district in today's world, you have to give residents a reason to live and tourists a reason to visit downtown. Pedestrian friendly streets and plazas, great lobster, and a way to determine the time and temperature every 5 seconds, (subliminal plug) and vitality after the banks and offices close are paramount in my opinion.

During my adult years, my "Urbanologist " hobby and my affection for Karen Carpenter (for you youngsters, Carpenters, brother and sister recording act from the 70's, 110 million units sold, 21 top 40 hits, 3 Grammy Awards) were my guilty pleasures. Never bumped into anyone else who had the same passion for cities/downtowns/skylines/buildings until my brother turned me onto Emporis. Then I found the SkyscraperPage and Bing "birds eye" maps and finally realized that there a bunch of characters like me from all over the world. Found this sight by accident last week and now I've brought my obsession closer to home which is pretty cool! I have a wonderful collection that I started in 1976 of clippings, brochures, renderings, press releases and anything else that involves Portland, it's developments, (realized or proposed), it's airport, it's waterfront, every damn arena study/proposal and a superb postcard collection along with downtown photos from the 50's and 60's.

Now for the bad news, my beyond basic computer skills suck. So the ability to scan or put images on this sight is an exercise in futility for me. My brother who is to technology as I am to urbanology finally convinced me to get an I Mac a couple of years ago which is why I am late to the party. SHAZBAT73, I have been in touch with Patrick via PM and hopefully we can meet up with Corey and his photography skills and take a walking tour of our fair city in the near future. By the way, I still have the original architect plans and marketing package of the proposed Fidelity Building addition, that is one development that I was really cheering for, it's my favorite high rise. Continued success with your Army career, I did 21 years in the Navy and retired in 1996. Five years will go by quickly unless you are patiently waiting for an expanded/renovated/new arena or a landmark office tower in Portland. Keep the faith!
 
Patrick, The article that contains the initial Back Bay renderings is titled "Tower plan reaction mixed", sub title (Council must make decision next week). It was definitely from the Evening Express due to my wife and I having a subscription during most of my military career, it's how I kept up with things. The Evening Express paid more attention to new projects and development issues than the Portland Press Herald in those days.

My one mistake during those young years is not taking the time to write the dates on the clippings that were not at the top of the page. Have a total of 5 articles in front of me and if I had to ballpark a date I would go with Summer, 1984. Construction did not start until December, 1985 due to numerous legal/finance/grant issues. You are welcome to have these articles if you want to meet up somewhere.

As far as the Oakdale project, I do remember hearing about it, but because it was off peninsula I did not pay much attention to it. There were numerous proposals that never got off the drawing boards, especially during 1980-1990 time frame. Found things that I forgot about while I was searching for your articles. One big project that never got off the ground was the conversion of the Cumberland Cold Storage eyesore on the waterfront into 116 condos with and additional floor, retail and parking.

You can borrow my years of clippings anytime, just make sure you take a couple of days off to digest it all!
 
Thanks! that would be great! I am fascinated with the history of how Portland developed and continues to grow. Sure, I like cities in general, but Portland is unique in my mind. As you mentioned, you can't measure a place by statistics very easily, but occasionally they are accurate in their depiction of "urbanity." Burlington, VT has 38,000 people, over 10,000 students August through May, and a nearby suburb, winooski, add another 6,000 people with an area of only one square mile (densest town in VT). Also, the land area I just mentioned is 11 square miles total, with approximately 54,000 people. Portland, by contrast, has twice as much land area, and only 9,000 more people. But, if you go beyond Portland's city proper core, the suburban metro area extends for much farther than Burlington's, and I think this explains why there is a TON more going on in Portland than in Burlington. I went to college in Burlington. When I was there, the town revitalized the winooski mills into a mixed use new urbanist village with condos and shops, and built an aquarium as well as a new parking garage, and a 10 story condo building on the lake and a new hotel. The town was booming, like many other areas at that time. The tallest buildings ever proposed for burlington were twin 16 story residential towers, which were overwhelmingly rejected by residents. There is currently a proposal to build a 10 story building on college street, but it hasn't seemed to get off the "drawing board" yet. and nearby south burlington is trying to create a master plan to make it have a "downtown"

that's all my knowledge on VT stuff. I have a lot on Portland, too, but I am sure it is mostly stuff you already know.

Lastly, I must say to anyone who has not yet been, that the newly renovated Portland Public Library is a MUST SEE. very open concept and new. nice. I was in there looking for the article you mentioned from 1966 on the 20 story building for monument square, which I retrieved, and I was in there again today. On the second floor reading room there is currently a giant collection of poster sized aerial photographs of portland from historical portland press herald photos. one of them shows one monument square under construction, and some others show the city before it had a real skyline. I highly recommend it, since it won't be a permanent collection on display. In the basement level, there are numerous poster sized architectural renderings of the various stages of design that the library had. Very nice as well.

I would LOVE to see the architectural plans for the fidelity addition sometime. We should definitely make plans.
 
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