Portland Museum of Art Portland, Maine

The Portland Museum of Art originally consisted of the 1801 McLellan House and its 1911 addition of the LDM Sweat Galleries. In 1983, the Charles Shipman Payson addition gave the museum a new face onto Congress Street. In 2007, the museum purchased its Greek Revival neighbor, the 1832 Charles Quincy Clapp House.

Mills Whitaker Architects was retained to establish a strategy for adaptive reuse of the Clapp House and a Master Plan to determine how to incorporate it into the museum campus. While reviewing existing conditions, MWA observed that the original museum was visually orphaned when the Pay- son Addition was constructed. A pathway leading from the Payson Galleries past the Museum Shop appears to dead end instead of leading into the Sweat Galleries and McLellan House. MWA developed a plan to remove the visual barriers and extend gallery space to the courtyard between the historic houses so that the original museum and new acquisition can be fully incorporated into the visitor’s experience. In addition to gallery space, the expansion will also provide a seminar room, print room, library, parlor, board room and reorganized offices.

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