ORONO – Construction costs to renovate and upgrade the former Maine Center for the Arts at the University of Maine have exceeded the original $10 million estimate from 2004, and an additional $6 million is needed to complete phase two of the project, according to the center’s advisory board president.

“We’re working as hard as we can to continue to raise money so that we can accomplish both phases at one time,” MCA advisory board president Richard McDonald said Friday.

Original estimates for the work were done in 2004. The increased cost of construction materials, in addition to the uncovering of some surprises in the original building construction that have complicated the work, has raised the estimated price tag.

“We didn’t have a complete set of plans as to how the building was actually built,” McDonald said. “We had to do some discovery.”

The first phase of the project is under way and work is progressing on schedule, he said. The plan is to try to raise the necessary funds in time to continue phase two without a break in construction.

The whole project is planned to be completed by early 2009.

“If we can do this all at once it is obviously going to cost less,” McDonald said. “If we don’t do it now, I would say it’s going to be $1 million to $2 million more than it would doing it today.”

Built in 1986 as the arts and cultural anchor for the campus, the MCA holds more than 150 events a year, including touring performances of theater, dance, music and pop culture, Bangor Symphony Orchestra concerts, conferences, lectures and academic ceremonies.

The museum component of the complex, which is tucked into hallways, galleries and lobbies, houses a collection of pre-Columbian artifacts.

Phase one of construction will update the facility to meet federal standards for public buildings set by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.

The Hudson Museum also is being integrated into the center, rather than being scattered and roped off during events and performances.

“[Nationally] they’re now starting to combine museums and performing arts centers together to give a cultural linkage to the two types of art,” McDonald said. “It’s now going to be sort of in symmetry of the entire building. That’s a huge, huge benefit.”

It also will allow for better preservation and display conditions so that precious items from the museum’s collection can be on display but still be protected.

“It’s a very extensive overhaul and rejuvenation of the building itself,” McDonald said.

Phase two also is a critical piece of the puzzle.

By upgrading the stage, increasing the fly space for scenery, and renovating the dressing rooms and the area in the back for stagehands and performers, the center will be able to attract larger, more prominent performances and increase its commercial viability, McDonald said.

“Right now we can’t accommodate many of them,” he said.

The university has been very supportive of the project in helping to raise money, and some grant and bond funding also was obtained, McDonald said.

The announcement last August of a $5 million gift from UM alumni Richard Collins and his wife, Anne Collins, also renamed the facility the Richard R. and Anne A. Collins Center for the Arts. Several other UM alumnae have donated to the project, but additional funds are needed.

“There are a lot of really solid citizens that have been involved in this,” McDonald said. “We’re right now at a point where we really need to reach out to the community and see if we can get people that we haven’t already brought into the donor pool.”

The center is closed for performances and museum visits during the construction process, but both institutions are taking their shows on the road, traveling throughout the state.

“This is a complicated project,” McDonald said. “It’s going to be a very pretty building when it’s completed.”

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