I feel that the Roux Center is unquestionably a boon for the city of Portland and for all of southern Maine. That said, I was shocked by the sheer monumentality of the new buildings shown in the architect’s concept for Roux’s planned campus on the Burnham & Morrill plant site (“Portland’s B&M Baked Bean factory to be replaced with Roux Institute campus,” Aug. 31, 2021). The five bulky stories of the old B&M plant are positively swallowed up by the mass and height of those shining glass monoliths, and any sense of the coastal location completely obscured.

In my humble opinion, the powers that be in Portland have already severely compromised the city’s uniqueness and its ability to support an economically-diverse population by allowing all of the soulless brick and glass up-scale apartment buildings and office buildings that keep springing up, block after block, on both sides of Franklin Avenue. As shown in the conceptual drawing, the Roux buildings would bring more of the same to East Deering (albeit with shinier glass).

I am not saying that Roux should not redevelop the B&M site. Redevelopment would be enormously positive, in my opinion. Rather, the issue is the sheer scale of these buildings in relation to the site. Surely an organization as richly-endowed as Roux, with such an illustrious, talented and presumably caring leadership, can come up with a more innovative, sensitive design such that the site is enhanced rather than simply being overwhelmed?

Joseph Foran
Naples

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