Letter From The Editor

PORTLAND

MavTHLl'

Publisher Editor Production Manager Advertising Director Advertising Real Estate Editor Displa y Classi fieds Pictures

Copy Editing Circulation

Nancy D. Sargent Colin Sargent Margarete e. SchnaLl(k Bobbi L. (ioodman Chris Oberholtzer John (ilass Sandy Joel Rhonda farnham M.e. Schnauck Johanna Hanaburgh John (ilass

Contributing Editors

Michael Hughes Marcia feller Richard Bennett Juris Ubans M. Reed Bergstein Kendall Merriam Fritzi Cohen Henry Paper David Swartzentruber Dan Domench Anthony Pearson Dennis Gilbert (icorge Hughes Jeff Belyea Nancy Gaylord John Taylor

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FROM THE EDITOR

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ALL RMS DeN VUe

( ( ATIONALISTS wear square hats. Dreamers wear sombreros." The line comes to mind with a smile whenever I drive past IT, Portland's only avowed Floating Hotel, a structure revered for its clean lines, sensibl~ floor plan, and gohjeous ocean VIews.

Jump into a taxi and head down to Fleet Landing. See for yourself. Before Chandler's Wharf, before 40 & 50 Portland Pier, before (and after) Tony DiMillo's floating hotel evanesced into thin air, the U.S. Navy brought - towed - IT to the Forest City.

And now there are two of IT in port, with room for up to 250 sailors in each - gray, floating Navy' berthing barges at the Bath Iron Works pier.

"I don't know how old IT is. It's not a commissioned vessel," laughs U .S.S. Brumb y command duty officer LT Chris Ferguson. "We don't know when it came here, or where it came from." No command history, no nickname. "We just call it 'The Home of the Brumby' while we're here. "The space allocated per person is probably equal," LT Ferguson ventures in a further attempt to describe IT. "And the temperature· is thermostatically controlled."

A perfect answer to the vanishing real estate on the waterfront. And it's buoyantly marine-use only. Understated. Would have zoomed through the Planning Boards.

The crews currently berthed in both of the city's new ITs are used to their high-perf~'rmance dreadnaughts at drydock, the Brumb y and the Koelsch, incredibly sleek postmoden~ jazz compared to IT.

IT. Design by Euclid. Neat gray corners, off-street parking, thermostatic control, metal chairs. In the luminous evenings, sailors dance the Watusi on IT. a')c~.! . J-ilA. : _,~ f

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