From: 	Patrick Costin <pcostin@canal5studio.com>
To:	Helen Donaldson <HCD@portlandmaine.gov>
CC:	Timothy Hart <thart@canal5studio.com>, "Greg Day(gregdaylight@gmail.com)" <gregdaylight@gmail.com>, Greg Shinberg <gls@shinbergconsulting.com>, "Timothy Hart" <thart@canal5studio.com>
Date: 	8/23/2013 3:48 PM
Subject: 	RE: follow up questions

Hi Nell,
Change the ordinance? ☺

I don’t think we have an appetite to ask for a waiver from the planning board.

Jeff Levine, Tim Soley and I had lunch recently with Beni Avigdori, an architect and city planner from Jerusalem. He noted that they have 25 staff members reviewing lighting plans for the exterior of buildings in his city. He said the entire city is lit at night to encourage activity and make it feel safe and welcoming (tourism is their biggest industry). He observed that Portland is dark at night for the most part and difficult to navigate for someone who is not familiar with the city. It is hard to get your bearings. And it is commercial brand identity signage that one sees, not the architecture of the city.

He thinks we are making a mistake prohibiting up-lighting.

Our client believes the corner window on the hotel is a $350K glass sculpture and worthy of consideration as “public art.”
We believe this is a reasonable argument for permitting up-lighting under the ordinance.

Best regards.

CANAL5STUDIO

Patrick S. Costin, AIA, LEED AP
One Canal Plaza, Suite 888
Portland, Maine 04101
207.553.2115

canal5studio.com

Architecture / Planning / Interior Design