On MLK Day, Portland's plan for $100K King memorial is delayed
Courtesy / Ironwood
A view looking north on Franklin Street in Portland. The site of the planned MLK memorial is the grassy area in the foreground.
Monday, Jan. 20, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday that commemorates the life of the slain civil rights leader. Employees at government offices, schools, the U.S. Postal Service, banks and many other businesses have the day off.
Also absent today: the winning design for a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Portland.
The city, which initially considered plans for a monument over a decade ago, has budgeted $100,000 for the project and began looking for designers last May. After receiving responses from nine bidders, a task force narrowed the field to three finalists, who received stipends of $2,500 each and then publicly unveiled their proposals Nov. 14.
The nine-member task force, co-chaired by City Councilor Jill Duson and the Rev. Kenneth Lewis of the Green Memorial AME Zion Church in Portland, expected to announce selection of a design on MLK Jr. Day, the city said at the time.
But the committee has asked two of the finalists to tweak their designs and present the modified plans Feb. 6, spokeswoman Jessica Grondin on Monday told Mainebiz.
Robert Katz, an artist in Augusta, and TJD&A Landscape Architects, of Yarmouth, were awarded stipends of $1,250 each for the additional design work, according to a city memo. The other finalist, Ironwood Design Group, of Newmarket, N.H., was not selected for additional consideration.
Further information was not immediately available from the city. But in the November presentations, both of the current contenders displayed a variety of visual features evoking King’s legacy.
The task force has provided specific feedback on each concept, but is asking both bidders to pare down the design elements and stick closer to the budgetary guidelines. When complete, the city plans to install the memorial along the Bayside Trail, near Franklin Street.
Portland began exploring the idea of a King memorial in 2008, when a city council task force recommended a site near the trail. A 17-member commission was formed to come up with a design, and issued an RFP that received four bids.
But the project, which would have cost “on the order of $750,000” according to the commission, stalled. Eventually, the city renewed the possibility of a King memorial and the RFQ was issued in May.
Cities worldwide have created monuments and public spaces to the civil rights leader since he was assassinated April 4, 1968. One of the most well-known memorials was built in 2011 in Washington, D.C., at a cost of $120 million. The University of Maine opened Martin Luther King Plaza near its student union in 2008, displaying 10 quotations by King.
King never visited Portland, but he spoke in Brunswick and Biddeford in early May 1964, eight months after his historic “I Have a Dream” speech.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments