The Portland Museum of Art (the PMA), founded in 1882, is Maine’s largest and most visited art institution, and among the oldest museums in America. Located in the heart of downtown Portland, one of the country’s most beloved cities, the museum encompasses a full city block of historically and architecturally significant buildings.
The museum has outgrown its current campus due to increased visitation and several major gifts to its collection. The broadening and diversification of the artwork, record attendance prior to the pandemic and community feedback have underlined the need for more space.
The PMA sees this as an opportunity to discover the impact a museum can have when it is built through an inclusive lens. By creating a community hub with myriad collaborative spaces, and focusing on groundbreaking approaches to art, the PMA believes it can become a place where all people feel they belong. More than just a new building, the PMA’s campus unification and expansion is a value proposition, envisioning the monumental positive impact museums can have on their communities.
The Portland Museum of Art Campus Unification + Expansion International Design Competition challenges architects to form a multi-disciplinary team with accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability experts, landscape architects and graphic designers to create an inclusive place that champions open expression and makes art accessible to all, a place that delivers on the promise of the PMA’s mission, Art for All.
The Portland Museum of Art Campus Unification + Expansion International Design Competition is an open, two-stage selection process.
Stage I: Request for Qualifications (RFQ) invites architects from around the world to form and lead a visionary, multi-disciplinary team of professionals (Design Team), and respond to this RFQ. Upon evaluation of the RFQ submissions, the PMA will select up to four firms and their proposed teams to participate in Stage II.
Stage II: Design Competition invites the selected, shortlisted teams (Shortlist) to develop a concept design for the project as directed by the Design Brief, which will be made available ONLY to the selected Shortlist. All shortlisted teams will receive the same Design Brief with the identical design challenge.
