PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 27, 2022
Glass collisions are one of the leading causes of bird mortality in the nation, killing an estimated 1 billion birds per year. We estimate up to 50,000 birds are injured or killed each year after striking windows throughout the city of Portland. Some of the proposed Portland Museum of Art designs combine large amounts of glass with visible vegetation, potentially making them significant new hazards in the city. We encourage the Portland Museum of Art, and other institutions in Maine designing new buildings, to think about how their work fits into the environmental landscape – not just of the immediate urban area, but of the entire state of Maine as well. ~ Addy Smith-Reiman, Portland Society for Architecture, and Nick Lund, Maine Audubon