Design Wire March/April 2025
The 2025 ARCHITALX lecture series, held at AURA in Portland throughout April, hosts a diverse collection of experts in architecture and design who seek to share their knowledge while conversing with the community. The compelling spring lineup includes DEBORAH BERKE, principal of TENBERKE and dean of YALE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE; JENNIFER DEMPSEY, project lead on the OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER for TOD WILLIAMS BILLIE TSIEN ARCHITECTS; ROSS ALTHEIMER, principal and cofounder of TEN × TEN STUDIO; and LAURA STEIN, chief creative officer of BRUCE MAU DESIGN. “We’re excited to welcome this year’s exceptional group of speakers to Portland. Each lecture offers a chance to explore unique perspectives in architecture and design, and we look forward to the connections, insights, and inspiration they will bring,” says Architalx president Andrew Ashey. Lectures are open to the public, and tickets are available at architalx.org.
Prior to the end of his term, former president JOE BIDEN declared FRANCES PERKINS’s family homestead in NEWCASTLE the second NATIONAL MONUMENT in Maine. Perkins rose to fame as the country’s first female cabinet secretary; she is known for championing labor protections—including banning child labor and instituting a 40-hour workweek, along with putting a minimum wage in place—and ensuring the passage of the Social Security Act under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Perkins’s 57-acre property includes a brick house and barns along the Damariscotta River. “Honoring Frances Perkins with a national monument does more than acknowledge her work to establish Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, and overtime pay. It is a challenge for us,” then-acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “We must all remember that the gains we enjoy today were not gifts, they were hard-fought victories because Frances Perkins dared to believe that workers should thrive and not just survive.”
The UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT AUGUSTA (UMA) recently broke ground on a $7.15 million expansion that will house the school’s growing nursing and cybersecurity programs. Known as the UMA CAPITAL CENTER FOR NURSING AND CYBERSECURITY WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, the facility will feature advanced laboratory technology that aims to address the state’s nursing shortage along with a 3,000-square-foot space for providing state-of- the-art cybersecurity training to the next generation of leaders, as well as opportunities for private industries and municipalities. LAVALLEE BRENSINGER ARCHITECTS and CONSIGLI CONSTRUCTION, both based in Portland, will partner on the renovations of the former PURDUE UNIVERSITY GLOBAL space across from UMA’s main campus.
The U.S. POSTAL SERVICE provided an early glimpse into the 2025 stamp program that includes a variety of popular and commemorative designs. Some of our favorites include the new Love stamp, which features artist KEITH HARING’s 1985 untitled drawing; a collection of Appalachian Trail images that includes a view from each of the 14 states along the Maine-to-Georgia trail; a postcard with Libby VanderPloeg’s illustration of a two- masted sea vessel based on a replica of the 1923 schooner Columbia; a series of bold and whimsical baby animals in blue, orange, black, and white designed by Tracy Walker; and a digital illustration of American television icon BETTY WHITE, known for her roles in The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, designed by USPS art director GREG BREEDING.
High-speed trains are finally hitting the rails on AMTRAK’s Northeast Corridor line. Following 900 test runs in the first half of 2024, the brand-new ACELA trains are ready to debut with a top speed of 186 miles per hour, though they will be capped at 160 miles per hour due to curves along the route. The new trains, which incorporate tilting technology, are quieter, more aerodynamic, and require less electricity to run than the current line. Inside, the new cars feature USB outlets, winged headrests, and a sleek aesthetic. While they’re still not a match for the high-speed trains of China and Europe, which travel up to 285 miles per hour, Acela’s next generation of trains offers a more climate-friendly method of travel than driving or flying.
PHARRELL WILLIAMS, an American musician and current men’s creative director for LOUIS VUITTON, is calling for the return of the art competition at the 2028 OLYMPIC GAMES in Los Angeles. Held from 1912 to 1948 alongside the sporting events of the summer games, the original arts competition awarded medals in five categories: architecture, music, painting, literature, and sculpture. Notable arts medalists include Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee; Mahonri Young, grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young; and John Russell Pope, the architect behind the National Archives and the National Gallery of Art. In 1948 the arts competition was removed from future games when the organizing committee noted that professionals were allowed to enter the arts events while sports were limited to amateurs. “We get to remind people that at one point, the Olympics actually had the arts as a section that ran. The idea we get to put the arts back in … Why not take this moment to bring awareness?” Williams told the Associated Press.
AREAWARE, a design-forward home decor company that collaborates with independent designers to create funky, functional objects, recently launched a set of Frank Lloyd Wright–inspired architectural building blocks for children. Designed by JAMES PAULIUS and made from New Zealand pine, the USONIAN BLOCKITECTURE SET is based on a honeycomb grid system similar to the hexagonal system Wright used to design his famous low, sprawling Usonian homes. A portion of every set’s purchase supports the FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION, which aims to inspire people to embrace architecture for better living.
Skowhegan-based milling company MAINE GRAINS is planning an expansion that includes a new 80,000-square- foot building expected to house the Skowhegan Farmers’ Market, the company’s administrative offices, a dry goods shop with a demonstration area, rental spots for entrepreneurs, and space to blend and package grains for value-added products and online fulfillment. According to MaineBiz, “The project [will] encourage foot traffic and retail shopping in the downtown [Skowhegan] area as part of a larger design toward a river park development that is underway on the Kennebec.” A series of grants from the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, NEW ENGLAND FOOD VISION, and MAINE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE’s Prime-2 fund will finance the expansion.