Design Wire June 2025
The historic ASTICOU hotel in Northeast Harbor is set to reopen this month after an extensive $28 million overhaul. Originally built before World War II, the inn was closed last summer to undergo updates that included the renovation of 82 rooms in the original building along with 15 harborside cottages and 17 spa suites. “We’re thrilled to bring the Asticou into a new chapter while honoring the rich history and heritage that has made it such a beloved landmark in Maine,” hotelier Tim Harrington, a founding partner of the KENNEBUNK RESORT COLLECTION and chair of ATLANTIC HOSPITALITY, said in a statement. New amenities include a heated pool, spa, fitness center, fine dining restaurant, and cabana bar, along with programming like guided hikes, yoga, art classes, and boat charters offered through the CLAREMONT HOTEL in Southwest Harbor.
MAINE AUDUBON’s “Bringing Nature Home” project emphasizes the importance of restoring and rebuilding the state’s natural biodiversity by planting native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees that support the widest array of wildlife. The organization’s annual NATIVE PLANTS SALE AND FESTIVAL at GILSLAND FARM in Falmouth features thousands of native plants perfect for Maine yards and gardens. This year, the sale and festival will take place on June 7 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Use the Audubon’s MAINE NATIVE PLANT FINDER to determine which plants best suit your landscape while providing the greatest ecological function and benefit. If you miss the event, you can still order plants online all summer long at shop.mainenativeplants.org, with pickup available at both Gilsland Farm and Fields Pond in Holden.
The ILLUSTRATION INSTITUTE, a Maine arts nonprofit organization dedicated to raising appreciation and awareness of illustration in its many forms, is moving to THREE CANAL PLAZA in Portland. Cofounded by illustrators SCOTT NASH and NANCY GIBSON-NASH, the institute provides free programs at public venues across the state, runs a summer artist residency program on Peaks Island, and creates and installs exhibitions with partnering institutions like Brunswick’s CURTIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY. The new space will initially be used as an incubation hub, with the goal of building and housing an illustration archive. “We have a legacy of attracting artists and illustrators to Maine, but what I’ve discovered over the past eight years is that we also have an abundance of illustrators here today that are some of the best in the world,” Nash said in a press release.
HANCOCK LUMBER’s Brunswick location is undergoing an expansion that will add 30,000 square feet to the primary build- ing, along with 20,000 square feet of outdoor lumber storage and expanded parking. “Our Brunswick rebuild is a generational project designed for decades to come—our goal is to modernize the experience and build a facility that will last into the next generation,” chief marketing officer Erin Plummer told MaineBiz. Managed by PENOBSCOT GENERAL CONTRACTORS, the firm that redeveloped Hancock’s Augusta and Yarmouth locations, the Brunswick project, which is expected to be completed in the fall, will include a hardware store, drive-through indoor lumberyard, kitchen design showroom, and office spaces, along with an expanded millwork warehouse building.
Photo: Courtesy of Joe Doucet x Partners
“What if buildings could adapt to the seasons as nature does?” asks American industrial designer JOE DOUCET, who spent two years developing a CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE EXTERIOR PAINT that changes colors based on a building’s temperature. Citing a study that claims it takes nearly 3 percent of a building’s total energy cost to raise or lower the internal temperature by just one degree, Doucet formulated a stable, durable paint that has a dark gray color below 77°F and changes to white at higher temperatures. The color-changing paint would likely cost three to five times more than standard paint, but Doucet told FastCompany that “you’d quickly make that back in energy savings.” Although he has no plans to start a paint company, Doucet is interested in licensing his formula to paint manufacturers once it undergoes more rigorous testing.
PORTLAND HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION is finishing up the $28 million rehabilitation of the HARBOR TERRACE apartment building at 284 Danforth Street this summer with partners PORTLAND BUILDERS INC., ADRA ARCHITECTURE, and CWS ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN. Upgrades to the 50-year-old, eight-story building, which includes 120 income-restricted apartments, will reduce the structure’s energy consumption by 30 percent and provide better accessibility. Harbor Terrace’s brick exterior is being replaced with airtight, insulated siding while the interior receives modernized mechanical systems, low-flow water fixtures, individual heat pumps, energy-efficient windows, and new kitchen cabinetry and appliances.
The BRIDGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s preservation and renovation of the nineteenth-century UNITED METHODIST CHURCH on Main Street that will serve as the organization’s new headquarters is almost complete. Though the building didn’t require many structural updates, it did need a new electrical and alarm system and modern wood flooring. An “adopt a window” fundraising campaign paid for the preservation of the 12 stained glass windows installed in 1905, a task carried out by Westbrook’s BAGALA WINDOW WORKS. ROSS HOLDEN, ED SOMERS WOODWORKING, and CRITERIUM ENGINEERS worked together on the building’s revamp, which is expected to finish phase 1 by late summer. Phase 2 will turn the church’s basement into an education center following the grand opening of the first floor.
Iconic Portland restauranteur MASAHIKO (MASA) MIYAKE, known for local Japanese establishments MIYAKE and PAI MEN, is working on a new venture in West Bayside with his son, Reo, and his son, Reo, and his son’s partner, Helen Carter. The main restaurant, called AOMORI, will focus on Japanese soul food and classic izakaya dishes from the Tohoku region, while the adjacent AOMORI KITCHEN AND MARKET will be a konbini-inspired Japanese convenience store with ready-to-go hot and cold food and drinks. Aomori signed a ten-year lease with REVELER DEVELOPMENT and PORTA AND COMPANY and is set to open at THE ARMATURE at HANOVER WORKS this fall.