“Architecture has always had something significant to say about the time and place in which it originated,” said Hans Jantzen in “High Gothic.”

Architectural historians want to classify architecture within an age: Romanesque, Gothic, Modernism, etc. When I look at the Portland Museum of Art’s proposed expansion I think we must be in a new architectural age, that of Trumpism. I see this design as all about itself. It dominates the site, lords over the existing historical buildings and demands full attention. Its architectural character is self-satisfying, self-serving and self-aggrandizing.

Should the PMA trustees have their way, Portland could have a first. Lucky us!

Robert Kahn
Portland