Project Title: Maine Center Ventures Classroom at Payson Smith Hall

Firm: CHA Consulting, Inc.

Submitted for Consideration in: Architecture

Client: University of Southern Maine

Location: 96 Falmouth St., Portland, ME 04103

Project-At-a-Glance:
This collaboration with the University of Southern Maine (USM) renovated outdated programmatic space into a home for a new graduate program, Maine Center Ventures (MCV), that seeks to foster the relationship between the academic and employer communities.

Project Narrative:

When the University of Southern Maine’s new graduate program, Maine Center Ventures (MCV), needed a home on its Portland campus, the university engaged our design team to renovate a former chemistry lab into MCV space. The results include a new TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning) classroom that allows for connection between professors and students on USM’s Portland campus and other remote University of Maine campuses simultaneously. Supporting the classroom are a conference room with flexible seating for 12 as well as a breakout space with casual soft seating to inspire collaboration. Castered furniture and glass marker boards allow for small groups to ebb and flow as the ideas do. These clean, contemporary spaces can function as instructional space or gathering spaces to support board meetings, receptions or other events. Astute visitors to the space will catch the nod to the space’s former use in the conference room.