Letter: Buildings must change with the times

What to do with the old Chamber of Commerce building? It can’t be razed without offending those who think it has historical significance, yet it stands in the way of an important addition to the Portland Museum of Art, for which raising a great deal of money is clearly a priority.

What if the building were to be restored? Add an elaborate tower to one front corner and add a small tower to the other corner for balance, as it appeared in the 1850s. Add a steeple like the one that sprang out of the roof in the 1870s. Keep the pediment and the row of columns. Keep the air-conditioning units, the vent stacks and the bird nests. It’s a theater, it’s a church, it’s a chamber of commerce, it’s a museum! It’s a monument to the history of Portland!

No, wait. Maybe it’s too much like the ruins of the Roman forum, the ones that were scarfed up by the British colonists, the ones that represented centuries of changing beliefs but in the end served none of them. Buildings need to change with the times.

OK, how about we tear it down, but save the columns? Cut up the columns and have the fragments painted in bright colors the way they paint fiberglass cows or lighthouses. Pay local artists for their work. Wealthy donors will purchase the fragments to grace their gardens as forever follies. Wealth will get redistributed. The PMA addition will proceed! As it should.

John Whipple
Portland