Portland Museum of Art Campus Unification + Expansion Design Competition: Shortlist

 

The Portland Museum of Art’s current structure, designed by Harry Cobb of SOM, now more than 40 years old, has seen no increases in galleries, visitor amenities, or capacity at the museum. To solve this long-standing problem, on June 1st, the Portland Museum of Art launched an invited competition with a call for qualifications in the first stage. Answered by 104 teams representing 20 countries, the screening committee, led by Susanna Sirefman of Dovetail Design Strategists, shortlisted four firms for the competition stage of the design process:

 

• Adjaye Associates with KMA, Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture, Atelier Ten, and 2×4
• LEVER Architecture with Unknown Studio, Chris Newell – Akomawt Educational Initiative, Openbox, Once-Future Office, Atelier Ten, and Studio Pacifica
• MVRDV with STOSS, the Institute for Human Centered Design, Pentagram, Atelier Ten, and DVDL
• Toshiko Mori Architect + Johnston Marklee + Preston Scott Cohen with Hargreaves Jones, Cross Cultural Community Services, WeShouldDoItAll, Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, and Arup

 

As diversity as near the top of the priority list, 30% of all lead architecture firms were founded or owned by people of color, and 16% of lead architecture firms founded or owned by women. Mark H.C. Bessire, the Judy and Leonard Lauder Director of the Portland Museum of Art declared: “We are deeply moved by the diversity of experience and records of innovation represented in these submissions. Our aspirations as a cultural institution are far greater than simply ‘building a building’, and when we launched the competition, we were curious to see if our colleagues in the architectural world were equally interested in the paradigm shift we were imagining. Turns out, they were.”

Final presentations by the finalists are due in October.