"We saw an opportunity to create a space that is welcoming, experimental, and immediately useful for the community." That's how Portland Museum of Art Executive Director Mark Bessire describes AMP, the timber pavilion that opened at 142 Free Street on October 2. The pavilion serves the public now, on ground the museum has set aside for a permanent wing.
The museum's posted hours say AMP's season runs through November, which makes November the last month of its first season. In the same stretch of weeks, the blocks around it are changing. Congress and Brown has a new evening anchor. Brown Street has a restaurant getting ready to open. A Congress Street storefront has set its last day. The pavilion is designed to leave someday, and nearby businesses are investing in the corner regardless. This month is the first chance to see how the Arts District holds up once the weather turns.
A public room with its exit already planned
AMP is a 4,200-square-foot structure designed by LEVER Architecture, the same firm designing the museum's permanent expansion. It was built with the Maine design-build firm Woodhull and with WholeTrees, which runs a timber mill and fabrication facility in Ashland. Most of the timber came from Maine. The museum says the pavilion is meant to be "fully deconstructed, relocated, and repurposed once construction begins on the museum's permanent new wing." The PMA's September announcement describes that wing as a 60,000-square-foot expansion on this site.
When will that happen? According to Mainebiz, as of September 21 the museum was still raising money for the larger expansion and hadn't announced a groundbreaking timetable. So the pavilion is temporary, but nobody has said when it ends. Right now the only schedule on record is the museum's seasonal one. AMP is open during regular museum hours from May through November, Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Fridays running until 8 p.m. The page says the pavilion "closes seasonally" and that hours may vary. It doesn't list a final 2026 date. Anyone who wants to see it this year should go earlier in November rather than later.
While it's up, AMP is free and open to the public. There's seating, free Wi-Fi, and a site-specific mural by Portland artist Jenna Pirello. The museum's plans for the space include rotating installations, performances, workshops, PMA Films screenings, artist commissions, youth-led projects and seasonal community events. The aim is to "augment the Arts District and Congress Square." The Portland Press Herald reported that the museum timed the opening to the October First Friday Art Walk. Marcie Parker Griswold, the PMA's head of communications and audience engagement, told the paper it was a chance "to kind of bring the museum a little bit outside."
Executive Deputy Director Lizzy Jones names the pavilion's everyday uses plainly: "performances and workshops to coffee, conversation, and connection." Those are daytime uses. The rest of the corner is changing in a different direction.
What moved in at Congress and Brown
In the Arts District near the pavilion, the old Soakology space at Congress and Brown streets is now Bad Neighbors. It's a listening bar and restaurant from the owners of Arcadia, Dave Aceto, Nicole Costas and Dennis Gaines. Portland Food Map reported that it seats 75, with a counter wrapped around a dual-turntable DJ station in the middle of the room. Gaines designed the sound. Costas wrote a list of 15 cocktails, including the Yacht Club Martini, made with St. George Valley Gin, kombu vermouth and avocado herbed oil. Chef Erasmo Benavides and consulting chef Evan Richardson built a menu of small plates plus "proper meals" such as a French dip and a fried chicken dinner. Dessert is a pancake with salted maple syrup.
Bad Neighbors' announced hours were Wednesday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to midnight. AMP closes at 6 p.m. most days and 8 p.m. on Fridays, so the bar's evening starts about when the pavilion's day ends. Together they keep the corner busy from mid-morning to midnight on most days of the week.
Down the block, the former Tokyo Sushi Ramen space at 11 Brown Street is becoming Chez Biso. It's a Congolese restaurant and bar lounge from owner Joceline Lesso and her husband, general manager Patric Lombo. According to the Press Herald, Lesso used to run a restaurant in Congo and later ran a catering business from a commissary kitchen in Maine. Catering clients encouraged her to open a restaurant. The opening was announced for October 17. The restaurant's own site still says it is "now preparing to welcome Portland," with a drinks menu "coming soon." Its posted hours are noon to 10 p.m., and reservations are by phone at (207) 536-1677. Calling before you go is the reliable way to check whether it's open yet. Reported capacity varies. Portland Food Map described a 26-seat restaurant, while the Press Herald reported 90 seats.
Farther up Congress, Paak opened September 12 at 650 Congress Street. It serves build-your-own bowls and smoothies and comes from Praewpran Yiamjanya and Patrick Udomsay, who also own the Sook Thai Mobile Kitchen. It's a quick lunch option before an afternoon at the museum.
The last day at 419 Congress
Not every storefront here is just getting started. Botanically Curious, the educational apothecary on the first floor of the Masonic building at 419 Congress Street, will close for good on November 22. Owner Paula Kersch opened the shop on April 5, 2024. She has run Botanically Curious for nearly 10 years in total and described the downtown location as "a beautiful experiment." Until it closes, everything in stock that isn't a Botanically Curious product is 40 percent off.
So the corner has changed in a few months. Bad Neighbors arrived in August, AMP opened in October, Chez Biso is close to opening on Brown Street, and a Congress Street shop that opened in 2024 will close before Thanksgiving.
November at the museum, by date
The pavilion is the newest piece of the PMA's campus. Inside, the museum's calendar has a few dates to plan around. Since AMP has no announced closing day, the earlier dates are the safer ones for seeing both.
- Through November 1. The last days of Jared Lank: Bay of Herons, which closes November 1.
- November 13. Sascha Braunig: Wrist Painter opens and runs through March 14, 2027.
- November 19, 10 a.m. to noon. Museum Playdates, listed as free.
- November 19, 2 to 3:30 p.m. A free PMA Films screening of NAZA. The listing doesn't name a venue, so check before assuming it's at the pavilion.
- November 19, all day and evening. Third Thursday, with free admission, according to the museum's events calendar.
Two longer-running shows carry into the new year. Eve Biddle: Wonderlands runs through January 24, 2027, and Passages in American Art runs through January 1, 2027. November 19 is the most efficient day of the month to visit. You can see the new Braunig show for free, catch the screening, and still reach AMP before it closes at 6 p.m. Thursday also falls within Bad Neighbors' posted Wednesday-through-Sunday week, so the same day can end at Congress and Brown after 5 p.m.
What spring will settle
The museum calls AMP "an early preview" of a campus meant to "link the energy of the Arts District, Monument Square, and the Old Port." Its May-through-November hours suggest the pavilion comes back next spring if construction hasn't started. With no public groundbreaking timetable as of Mainebiz's September report, nothing published gives a different answer yet. Congress Square Park, which the museum names as part of the area AMP is meant to serve, has no events posted on its November calendar.
For now, the corner's schedule is simple. The pavilion is open daytime hours until its season ends sometime in November, the bar opens at 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, and November 22 is the last day at 419 Congress Street.
The museum's expansion will shape the blocks around Congress Square for years. Its pace matters to anyone who owns, rents or plans to buy within walking distance of Free Street. If you'd like to talk about how projects like this tend to affect a downtown block over time, Elise Kiely would be glad to hear from you. Request a private consultation.
