Exterior design details
Cobb’s largest challenge was to create a building that provided an enjoyable and powerful location to view art, while relating to the diverse conditions of its awkwardly shaped urban site. The tall brick buildings enclosing the other sides of Congress Square required the Payson building to contain a unified, strong, large-scale presence. Conversely the smaller, historic PMA buildings on the Spring Street side of the build site required the Payson Building to have a smaller-building form that would accommodate these historic neighbors. [2] Cobb’s solution was to design a wide façade made of red brick and gray granite lintels with semicircle openings. [4] This forceful façade has the street presence of a Renaissance palazzo, enclosing the public square. [2] Behind the façade Cobb gradually reduced both the height and length of the building until the building terminated in the back left corner, one fourth as wide and tall as the main façade. By stepping the building back and down in this way, Cobb was successfully able to grant primacy to the neighboring historic buildings. [3]
Cobb chose to comprise the structure of the Payson Building of a concrete frame with concrete block infill, rendering the façade essentially a “curtain wall.” [1] This led to criticism from other architects that Cobb gave the building a false, billboard-like, front. [5] Cobb claims, however, that the façade symbolically represents the interior. The circular insets and cutouts are metaphors that recall the square interior galleries and the rectangular brick insets signify the rectangular interior circulation spaces. [6]
Interior design details
Behind the controversial façade lie many galleries with clean white walls and pine floors with granite stripping set into the floor. [5] This granite marks off twenty-foot by twenty-foot spaces, thought by Cobb to be the smallest desirable gallery space. Around these square spaces, granite strips also delineate rectangular circulation spaces around each square. Over certain granite strips, Cobb placed walls with wide cutout doors to shape various sized gallery spaces. [2]
To reflect and accommodate the diversity of the Homer paintings, Cobb not only strategically placed walls to create different sized gallery spaces, but also varied the ceiling height from 12.5 to 25 to 37.5 feet (3.8–11.4 m) high. These diverse gallery spaces were intentionally designed to provide no clear path through the museum. Cobb claimed that this layout reflected the lack of ordering grand boulevards and grids in the modest cities of New England. [1] Further, Cobb’s layout of the galleries allows a visitor standing in one gallery to see glimpses of several other galleries, often on multiple levels, through the wide gallery doors. This gives the visitor a sense of adventure and anticipation as he or she travels through the galleries. [5]
Perhaps the most compelling feature of the galleries is the lighting, rivaling that of Louis Kahn’s Kimball Gallery. [5] The galleries are lit with cascading domed ceilings, which are filled with daylight from superimposed octagonal clerestory lanterns based on the Dulwich College Art Gallery by John Soane. [2] Clerestories permit maximum sunlight to enter the gallery while avoiding direct rays hitting the gallery walls. This natural light is accompanied by incandescent track lighting, [6] although this artificial lighting is often left off during the day. [5] The shifting light entering the museum animates, diffuses, and shapes the galleries below, celebrating the museum's collections with “Portland Light.” [3]
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later date being the most commonly held. In the 12th century it developed into the Gothic style, marked by pointed arches. Examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.
The National Gallery of Canada, located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up 46,621 square metres (501,820 sq ft), with 12,400 square metres (133,000 sq ft) of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the largest art museums in North America by exhibition space.
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole community often met there daily for readings and to hear the abbot or senior monks talk. When attached to a collegiate church, the dean, prebendaries and canons of the college meet there. The rooms may also be used for other meetings of various sorts; in medieval times monarchs on tour in their territory would often take them over for their meetings and audiences. Synods, ecclesiastical courts and similar meetings often took place in chapter houses.
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts an art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, who also provided funds for a new building to house it.
The Fuller Building is a skyscraper at 57th Street and Madison Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Walker & Gillette, it was erected between 1928 and 1929. The building is named for its original main occupant, the Fuller Construction Company, which moved from the Flatiron Building.
Joan Whitney Payson was an American heiress, businesswoman, philanthropist, patron of the arts and art collector, and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was also co-founder and majority owner of Major League Baseball's New York Mets baseball franchise, and was the first woman to own a major-league team in North America without inheriting it.
The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the gallery emphasizes early Italian painting, African sculpture, and modern art.
The Petit Palais is an art museum in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France.
The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine.
The L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries are a series of art galleries that are part of the Portland Museum of Art, which is located in the Arts District of Portland, Maine.
The McLellan-Sweat Mansion is a historic house museum on High Street in Portland, Maine. It forms the rear component of the Portland Museum of Art complex. Built in 1800–01, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a well-preserved Federal style brick townhouse.
The United States Custom House is a historic custom house at 312 Fore Street in downtown Portland, Maine. It was built from 1867–1872 to house offices of the United States Customs Service, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Old Union Meetinghouse, now the Union Baptist Church, is a historic church at 107 Mason Road in the Farmington Falls area of Farmington, Maine. Built in 1826–27, it is a high-quality and well-preserved example of a traditional late-colonial meetinghouse with Federal-style details. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Union Church, now Phillips Congregational Church, is a historic church on Main and Pleasant Streets in Phillips, Maine. Built in 1835, this Greek Revival church is the oldest religious building in the small community, and a distinctive local landmark. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Readfield Union Meeting House is a historic brick meeting house at 22 Church Road in Readfield, Maine. Built in 1828, it is a particularly fine example of Federal period architecture for a rural context. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The John Calvin Stevens House is an historic house at 52 Bowdoin Street in the West End neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Built in 1884, it was the home of architect John Calvin Stevens, and was one of Portland's earliest examples of Shingle style architecture. The house was prominently used by Stevens in promotion of the style, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Charles Q. Clapp House is a historic house at 97 Spring Street in central Portland, Maine. Built in 1832, it is one of Maine's important early examples of high style Greek Revival architecture. Probably designed by its first owner, Charles Q. Clapp, it served for much of the 20th century as the home of the Portland School of Fine and Applied Art, now the Maine College of Art. It is now owned by the adjacent Portland Museum of Art. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The Red Brick School is an historic school building on Warren Street in Wiscasset, Maine. Built in 1807 as a subscription-funded secondary school, it served in that role until 1923. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in October 1970. It now houses an art gallery.
The University of Michigan Central Campus Historic District is a historic district consisting of a group of major buildings on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The Oklahoma Judicial Center is the headquarters of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Judiciary of Oklahoma. Situated near the Oklahoma State Capitol, the original structure, designed by the architectural firm Layton, Hicks & Forsyth, was built between 1929-1930 as the home of the Oklahoma Historical Society and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Oklahoma Historical Society Building in 1990. The society moved to the nearby Oklahoma History Center when it opened in 2005. An annex was completed in 2011.
