All four proposals for the new “wing” of the Portland Museum of Art are big, bold and completely different from the existing buildings on that site, as well as from every other building in Portland. They dominate the Payson building. All of them propose to move the main entrance court to the back of the old building and all contain huge amounts of public space. They make their own big statements. Ever since Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao revitalized that city, it seems that the museum building itself has to be the draw. The art inside is secondary. The existing building is secondary. Will that work here in Portland?

There’s no doubt the museum could use an addition. The Henry Cobb/I.M. Pei-designed Payson building is a bit stodgy by today’s standards. It is a massive façade with galleries that step down behind it. The lobby is lifeless when empty and overly loud when filled with people. It is precise like a watch. The drawings done in 1981 showed every brick, hand drawn. Yet the building is well liked. Light in the exhibition rooms is thoughtfully controlled. The stair landings are fun. As a symbol of Portland’s cultural aspirations and a post-modern interpretation of the city’s brick-built history, the PMA adds gravitas to our “museum district.” We wander into it free on First Fridays to see a small current exhibition and re-acquaint ourselves with Winslow Homer. It’s hard to imagine Congress Square without it.

Galleries are not discussed in the proposals. Toshiko Mori’s presentation talks about the unique quality of Maine light, and makes that the reason for a monumental sawtooth roof. Curiously, it encases the not-so-precious façade of the old Children’s Museum in glass, leaving it on Free Street, but not really. The building’s white metal shape towers above the Payson building like an alien intervention. 

Adjaye Associates’ building features solid-looking volumes with wide glass voids. Where they’re not glass, the walls are rammed earth, explained as a connection to the “ecology and heritage” of the site. (Say what?) One long rammed-earth block hovers daringly above your head as you approach the main entrance. It accesses a multi-story atrium alive in the renderings with crowds of people.

The MRDV building is anything but the “light touch” that it claims to be. Its stacked modules are incongruous, like kids’ toys bought on different holidays. It features another busy atrium, like a mall at Christmas. It’s a place to get wired, not to contemplate art.

The design by LEVER architecture is the only one that acknowledges the Payson building. Where the old building is thick and solid, the new façade is glassy and light. You can enter from Free Street or through a brick tunnel punched through the old building. (Brilliant!) The building itself keeps a respectful distance from the old one, as it does not try to envelop it. Major materials are glue-lam wood and glass. (Yes, Portland is ripe for a prominent mass-timber building!) The building is glassy and sunny. In fact, it comes with a narrative about sun’s importance to the Wabanaki Indians and how that shaped it. (Another link obscure to me.) Somewhere inside, there may even be a good place to contemplate art. This one is clearly the best of the group.

These architects were given a tough program. To squeeze an “iconic,” “innovative,” “transformational” and “cool” “wing” into the residual space on this site may be impossible without making the Payson building secondary. That building may be just too perfect to modify, too staid to participate in the new program.

With museums, it seems there’s no such thing as a modest proposal. The wing has to be the thing. All of these proposals are that. Filling their monumental spaces with the kind of activity envisioned in the proposals seems like a tall order for our small city. Portland is red hot, though. It could work. I hope it does.