The University of Southern Maine is considering replacing its old Law School building with faculty housing due to disrepair and high maintenance costs. The brutalist structure, once dubbed one of America's ugliest, is now vacant and awaiting demolition, making way for potential affordable housing for staff and faculty.
Shutterstock photo/Georgii Mironov
On the University of Southern Maine (USM) campus in Portland, just off the central roundabout, a brutalist coliseum once described as one of the ugliest academic buildings in America sits empty.
The structure, at one time home of the University of Maine (UM) School of Law, has been vacant since the law school moved to Portland's Old Port in 2023, but the University of Maine System just does not have the budget to demolish the building at this point, according to the Portland Press Herald.
"There's no ribbon-cutting for a building being torn down, there's no naming opportunity," explained Ryan Low, the system's vice chancellor for finance and administration.
However, USM is in preliminary discussions about replacing the local landmark with staff and faculty housing.
The eight-story building opened in 1972 and cost $2.7 million to construct. At the time, exposed concrete styles were popular, especially on university campuses.
In 2017, though, the building captured national attention when Architectural Digest named it one of America's seven ugliest academic buildings.
‘Significant Disrepair' of Old Building Makes Demolition Likely
Low told the Press Herald that a period of declining student enrollment prompted the state's public universities to reassess campus infrastructure needs.
"We have buildings in place for a system of 30,000 students, and we have considerably less than that," he noted.
The University of Maine System enrolled about 25,000 students this fall, the first year-over-year increase of undergraduate students in more than 20 years.
Since 2011, it has also eliminated 400,000 sq. ft. of space from its campuses, according to Low.
"But we've got a list of an additional 500,000 square feet — including the law school, including Dickey-Wood on the Gorham campus, including facilities all across the system — that we could take down as soon as tomorrow if we had the resources [and] if we had someone to actually do the work," he said. "At the end of the day, it's really a resource issue."
In January 2023, the law school officially moved from its Oakdale building to a rented modern glass and metal building at 300 Fore St. in the Old Port neighborhood after getting approval from Portland's Planning Board. The new 64,000-sq.-ft. school has nine high-tech learning spaces, two classrooms with a 100-seat capacity, a law library and legal aid clinics.
The move also prompted conversations about the fate of the old law school building. At the time, then-University of Maine System spokesperson Margaret Nagle said the building would eventually be demolished, although no plans had been finalized.
Low explained that the law school building is in "significant disrepair" — which includes leaks and regular flooding — and the cost of fixing it would be far greater than its value.
He also noted that the university system allots $1 million a year for demolitions, just a fraction of what it would take to raze the law school. Low estimated that such a project would come with a price tag of more than $5 million.
In the meantime, USM is spending about $210,000 annually to maintain the building, which includes winterization costs, a fire suppression system and other utilities.
It is difficult to get donors — or legislators — excited about funding demolitions, Low said, but across university system buildings, the cost to tear down a structure is often looped into the budget for the new project that will take its place.
Hopes for New Housing Are High
USM has not formally come to the University of Maine System's board of trustees with plans for a new project, although the Press Herald noted that administrators say they are in early talks about using the land for housing.
Jacqueline Edmondson, USM's president, told the Portland news source that the university is exploring a public-private partnership to build housing in place of the law school building.
"The idea is that we would build housing that would be affordable for faculty and staff," she explained. "Sometimes we have challenges hiring faculty and staff because of the housing shortages in our area, and also because of cost of housing."
The city of Portland reached out to the university in February 2023 when it was looking for more space to expand its emergency shelter capacity, but USM Chief Business Officer Justin Swift said the law school building did not have the necessary elements to even serve as a temporary shelter.
He added that the structure is not currently designed for residential or sanitary health purposes and could not be used as such without a "major investment."
"There aren't usable showers, bathtubs or anything in that building. It was set up to be office space and classroom space for a law school," Swift explained.
The former law school property rests on just over one acre, which he said would allow it to be home to around 75 units depending on the type of housing the university settles on.
Additionally, USM has not decided on a model for the management of the housing, and Swift said it's too early to offer any sort of timeline.
At this point, he noted, the only path forward that makes financial sense is to demolish the old law school building.
"[It] was built in 1972, and construction standards were different from what people expect today. Right now, that building has about $22.9 million in deferred maintenance, and so that's a challenge too," Swift said. "Even if we put that type of investment into it, would it meet today's standards and expectations?"
‘One Person's Eyesore Is Another's Gem'
When Architectural Digest dubbed the building one of the nation's worst, law school staff who worked there at the time spoke plainly about having to use the space.
Nicole Vinal, UMaine's then-assistant dean for finance and administration, described the building as "rather unfortunate" and the workspace as impractical.
"Everyone's office is shaped like a slice of pie," she said in speaking with the Press Herald. "You can't find furniture that fits appropriately."
But she said the architect was apparently fond of his work, so much so that he would sit outside in a lawn chair just to admire it.
When the University of Maine System announced plans for demolition in 2023, a local organization, Greater Portland Landmarks, published a tribute to the center.
"In a city whose historic character is well reflected in the restrained traditionalism of most of its architecture, the Law Building is audaciously modern and unapologetically controversial," Archer Thomas wrote in the piece. "Admittedly, the structure is hard to love. For one, the Law Building sticks out like a sore thumb, an eight-story behemoth in the last state where the tallest building is a church."
Thomas said the degradation of many mid-century modern buildings made of concrete, like the law school, is happening across the country, and made a plea for appreciation of Maine's foremost brutalist structure while it still exists.
"One person's eyesore is another's gem," he wrote. "If the Law Building is truly beyond saving, as it might well be, it is imperative that we as a public at least pay it the homage it deserves."
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