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PlantArch

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TC_zoid said:
The more that I look into the use of this new arts center, the more disturbing it becomes. It does not address most of the practical needs of the arts programs. As mentioned, the concert hall (if you can call it that) seats just over 100. That does nothing other than provide classroom functions. There is no theatre for the drama program, yet celebrity actor Tony Shalhoub has appeared to promote the center with this program as an inclusion. (He had a wonderful experience at USM for dramatic arts.) And so, it does not address a wider use for the center, and now it's apparently for book arts too. Huh? Book arts? That's a thing? I've been to nearly every key museum around the nation and books arts is such a small thing it's not even worth mentioning. This facility needs to be at least three times bigger to address the needs for the college. Here we go again, building something in Maine that will soon become outdated. True, it's beautiful on the outside and will look great at that end of the campus, but interior usage is the most important aspect to architecture. Sorry, but this building fails. How can it not? The copy below is kind of B.S., really. It's really only a place for students to practice music. It's a misnomer.

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For once I agree with you. This building is a nothing burger.
 
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TC_zoid said:
Merrill Auditorium and Westbrook Performing Arts Center are the appropriate spaces for the more refined music, drama, and ballet. Aura is a club venue. The State Theater was once an X-rated movie house, but it's cool so it has that going for it. But also in my point is the misnomer "Center for the Arts". They are now primarily promoting it as classroom space for music and now exhibition space for book arts. Teaching drama and ballet can be done anywhere with four walls and a roof, and it is. I'm just asking for clarity, that's all. $60 million is a lot of money to spend if much of it goes to exhibition space for book arts. I think the solution is to add height to the recital space with balconies to increase seating. Bowdoin's recital hall seats 280. I would make the USM one around 500 with more balconies (height). USM has one of the best music programs in the country and this space will be less than half the size of Bowdoin's. Why fall short? Book arts? Use that money.

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Studzinski Recital Hall
at Bowdoin College has nearly 3 times the capacity of what they are proposing at USM. Clearly insufficient for even their small program needs. The other venues available would often be too large for their programming.
 
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PlantArch said:
Studzinski Recital Hall
at Bowdoin College has nearly 3 times the capacity of what they are proposing at USM. Clearly insufficient for even their small program needs. The other venues available would often be too large for their programming.
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Somehow someone has influenced this build for a gallery or galleries for book arts. This is grossly unnecessary. It's another example of a public institution spending money wildly and not "thinking" about the proper and needed usage. "Stupid is as stupid does." Yes, that's true in this case. In some ways, this tiny new recital space will be more of a hinderance than not. The subterfuge is in the naming of the facility: "Center for the Arts." It should be the "The center for small capacity recitals and looking at book art." Someone write an op/ed in the PPH. I'm just so weary.
 
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markhb

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Here is the site for the existing USM Book Arts program. Since it's named for an alumna, my guess is that it boils down to "follow the money." It's worth noting, to me at least, that currently the program only offers a minor, not a major.
 
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The construction trailers and subcontractor pickup trucks are gone, and other than landscaping, it looks like just exterior work on the southeast and south sides remain. The school has a link up for the room configurations and costs (see below). I think this dorm will be a huge success. I like the comfy womb-like courtyard. It makes a big difference in the winter eliminating wind chill factors, and the heat gain from outdoor metal siding increases the temperature a bit when standing or sitting close. I used to live in a building sheathed in metal siding with a glass sided deck. As long as the temperature was at least 45 degrees with the sun out (in February), I could sit outside in a short sleeve shirt to absorb the sun's rays. I think the architect knows this. And being a Passivhaus design results in no interior cold drafty air pockets due to thermal bridges for a near perfect 72 degrees throughout. My one year at USM I rented a room in a big house a few blocks away, and it was the old-style clanging hissing steam system. The days of being either too cold or too hot are absent with this build. Good. Incentive to live here. I see big growth for the Portland campus. And the option to live in some of the cool new housing on the way for Bayside is another reason.

https://usm.maine.edu/residential-life/portland-commons/
 
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TC_zoid said:
The bar has been raised for new construction at universities (see link). The everywhere talk today in this context is about when a school can achieve carbon neutrality, and this is a good start. However, I wonder how much geothermal in a hi-rise building like this increases the cost? Is it worth the big feel good?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/video/2...-of-boston-universitys-data-science-building/
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Hoorah for it being fossil fuel free etc .... however it is an eyesore that is certainly eye catching for all the wrong reasons. You can blah blah on all you want about it being forward thinking but in the end it is a horribly unattractive building.

I went by the new dorm at USM today and am so disappointed in the choices for exterior cladding. Like lemmings they followed the crowd and went with gray on gray on black. It is a very cold appearing building. Seems we are stuck with this look in Portland for the foreseeable future. I hope they wake up soon and learn there are much better choices in materials and colors to be had.
 
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Architecture above all has to be substantially functional to have the greatest value. The B.U. Data Sciences building looks interesting, that's obvious, but probably yes, it's not to be described as beautiful. But if you spend the time to read the comments from the students and teachers, the consensus is that they love it. I'd say it is a success based on that. I see beauty all over my Instagram feed every day, but substantively it's a wasteland. If you focus only on beauty...
 
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There had been a few mostly bare utility poles left standing along that side of Bedford St. and I was worried those would remain and be featured on the "Utility Poles and Wires" thread

But this is an incredible space! It's hard to really wrap my head around how transformative this will be for the USM campus.
 
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I think that USM's days as a purely "public" university are numbered....and that's a good thing.
 
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