USM | Portland

By the way...don't get me wrong. I am excited for USM and its development as an urban university. I'd love to see them go private. And yes, they should divest themselves of the Gorham campus.
 
Perhaps it will result in one of the top ten best designed college campus buildings in the country, to offset the law building being in the top ten worst (lol). I only see the investment in this campus continuing with the arts center, a graduate business school, and a new science building (biotech). I love the homey quad feel, and the dorm and its courtyard with its womb-like effect. The latter is a Passivehaus design, so no more waking up to freezing temperatures in the morning like nearly every other college experience is in Maine. There are also plenty of off-campus options for housing, like 52 Hanover. Upgrade the sports programs with dynamic merchandising and now it's a kind of real university. Go Huskies.
 
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From what I've seen and read from the architectural firm, it's about the usage of the center and how it relates and opens up to the quad and dorms. If you want a great example of visual and beautiful architecture, then I suggest a tour of Congregation Bet Ha'am in South Portland.
 
A few new (?) renderings of the arts center:

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Here's the current positioning on the lot:

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I would assume that once this is built most (if not all) of the music programming that uses Hannaford Hall will use the new concert hall? Hannaford is convenient to the parking garages... this is not.
 
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Looks like the historic house is going to be moved back a bit. Makes sense. The only concern I have here is that the recital hall is designed for only around 100 seats. That means Hannaford Hall is still the go-to place for most or many public concerts. It also means that the small one is used for the optimum in acoustics, of which should be the focus for all performances? It seems half thought out.
 
TC_zoid said:
Looks like the historic house is going to be moved back a bit. Makes sense. The only concern I have here is that the recital hall is designed for only around 100 seats. That means Hannaford Hall is still the go-to place for most or many public concerts. It also means that the small one is used for the optimum in acoustics, of which should be the focus for all performances? It seems half thought out.
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What's USM's largest ensemble? If they have an orchestra that stage is going to be tight at best.
 
nomc said:
What's USM's largest ensemble? If they have an orchestra that stage is going to be tight at best.
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It's also about visiting performers, to learn from them. It's certainly not symphony sized--far from it. And this arts center is also supposed to be about dance (ballet) and acting (plays). The size of this little stage and limited seating is really only about classroom related functions. There's always the Westbrook Performing Arts Center. But I'm guessing a couple of years into this there will be a cry for a 1,500 seat performance center within walking distance. They should save the time and future expense to search for more money to build it taller for that (or deeper).
 
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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Do you think it's possible that USM felt there was not a need for more seating in the new on campus center due to the many venues downtown that have ample capacity such as Aura, Merrill Auditorium, State Theater and the proposed St. Lawrence Arts facility up on the hill? Cross Arena and the Expo are obviously too large and not appropriate for theater type performances.
 
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Teaching the arts requires dedicated classroom space, not venues. It's not entirely about the productions and performances. It's more about the process to get there. As such, existing spaces in the area are probably sufficient to support the productions and performances.
 
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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Thinking of it this way:

Corthell Hall: Not a huge venue. Lots of damp practice rooms in the basement. Other classrooms are either too cold or too hot depending on season, which isn't great for practicing instruments. It's a great venue for RECITAL space or smaller performances (like brass, strings, vocals).

Walter E Russell Hall: The theater spaces isn't GREAT, but is very well USED by the theater program. I'm not as familiar with rehearsal space, dressing rooms, classrooms, storage.

Brooks Hall (The Spaceship): Sometimes the lower floor is used for rehearsal space as needed, depending on what student life has going on etc. This accommodates overflow and competition for rehearsal space.

Luther Bonney Hall/Talbot Lecture Hall: These really don't accommodate overflow from Russell or Corthell. I forget what these spaces are like.

Abromson Center/Hannaford Hall: Good for small recital spaces, but that's about it. Are there practice rooms etc in Portland?

If USM has been using Merrill and other venues for bigger events for a while, perhaps they don't see the need to sink money into a huge venue for themselves if the local area can provide it. I think they're seeing it primarily as a replacement of Corthell. However, the new building would need to be large enough to provide vocal, instrumental, and dance studio spaces, practice spaces, rehearsal spaces - WITH good acoustics. There would need to be a large enough theater-type space to effectively run a show, back stage area, dressing rooms, costume room, sets. It all starts to get really crowded. There tends to be competition for space between the programs where one needs the space to rehearse for a show, the other needs space to rehearse choreography, the other needs to rehearse a section or full orchestra. They're going to need a good schedule for departments to "book" space if they're not specifically designated.

I suppose it would be more tragic if USM pulled what St. Joe's did when they filled in their auditorium (Heffernan) to enlarge their library. Then built a shrug of a lecture hall/performance space in Alfond Hall. However, St. Joe's doesn't have a theater, music, or arts program. It was mainly used for either lectures, large meetings, or the theater club.
 
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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Is this a depiction of the proposed performance space, or is this from something else? If so, this is NOT big enough for the program.
 
DanielPWM19 said:
Is this a depiction of the proposed performance space, or is this from something else? If so, this is NOT big enough for the program.
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It's the recital space at Bowdoin College. Music and speech only. USM's will be half this size, or in seating capacity.
 
TC_zoid said:
It's the recital space at Bowdoin College. Music and speech only. USM's will be half this size, or in seating capacity.
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But they're planning a killer book arts space coming from this $60 million dollar spend! I always love a top-notch books arts venue. But then again, I don't think I know what that is.
 
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