Providence Projects v2.1

[gregw]

What is Brown doing with the site of the old gym on Elmgrove Ave.?

Athletic fields. Neighborhood NIMBYs shot down a plan a few years ago to transform the gym into condos.

[Frankie811]

Athletic fields. Neighborhood NIMBYs shot down a plan a few years ago to transform the gym into condos.

What was the name of the gym, I just can't remember.

[AriPVD]

Marvel Gym

[gregw]

Artinruins has a lot of stuff about Marvel Gym.

http://www.artinruins.com/arch/rip/marvelgym/

[PVDJack]

Check out the new Providence Development map on the UrbanPlanet hompage.

This is really terrific, Cotuit -- thank you!

Are you taking requests for other projects to be listed? Or alternatively is there a way for other folks to post directly to the map?

Jack

[Cotuit]

Are you taking requests for other projects to be listed?

Sure, if there are any mistakes, or omissions, let me know.

Or alternatively is there a way for other folks to post directly to the map?

Right now, there is not a way for members to add to the maps.

[PVDJack]

Sure, if there are any mistakes, or omissions, let me know.

Right now, there is not a way for members to add to the maps.

Great. Here's my first request:

New India Point Park Pedestrian Bridge

http://www.dot.state.ri.us/projects/constr...pedbr/index.htm

BTW, what do you think about including projects that aren't technically in Providence, e.g. Pawtucket projects, airport runway expansion, etc.

Thanks!

Jack

[Cotuit]

BTW, what do you think about including projects that aren't technically in Providence, e.g. Pawtucket projects, airport runway expansion, etc.

I'll add things outside of Providence eventally, that just takes more time and research because I don't have all of the information right at my fingertips. Even some of the Providence projects I had to do some research to find out exactly where they were. Hence some of my recent inquiries in threads like the Meeting School one.

[PVDJack]

I'll add things outside of Providence eventally, that just takes more time and research because I don't have all of the information right at my fingertips. Even some of the Providence projects I had to do some research to find out exactly where they were. Hence some of my recent inquiries in threads like the Meeting School one.

Understood. I think the map is such a powerful tool, and will be even more powerful once if/when it has "wiki-style" functionality that enables us all to contribute.

In the meantime, thanks again for carrying the burden.

Jack

[CtownMikey]

http://www.riedc.com/files/MajorDevelopmentProjects.xls

[gregw]

http://www.riedc.com/files/MajorDevelopmentProjects.xls

Wow. Thanks for the spreadsheet! RI's economy sure doesn't look bad when you look at that list.

I couple of things I noticed:

I had no idea that the tower to be built at the former Gulf Station was estimated to cost $200 mil. more than twice the cost of 110 Westminster. What's up with that?

A few omissions:

There are some pretty big ticket projects in Woonsocket whose names I don't remember.

No Carpionato Produce Warehouse project, which has got to qualify as major in terms of cost.

No Puente either. That seems to be underway.

No sign of any Louttit project on Cranston St. Is that dead?

Noticed that the remaining Foundry/Brown and Sharpe bldg next to 95 is in the planning stage to be rehabbed as office or residential space.

[brick]

Although I understand the reasoning, it does make me kind of sad (again) to see fidelity developing 275,000 sq. ft. of office space in Smithfield. It bothers me for a couple reasons. One, it would obviously be nice to have another 275000 sq. ft. of office space used Downcity, whether they built their own tower or not, and two, driving out that way used to be relaxing and now it is turning into congested suburban sprawl everywhere. RI is going to look like northern NJ.

[gregw]

At least a lot of the projects are in urban areas now. That definitely has a lot to do with the Historic Tax Credit.

Check out these anti-sprawl sites:

http://www.sierraclubri.org/sprawl/index.htm

Scroll down and check out the "Nasty Nine." Nine biggest sprawl projects from 2000, though I'm still not convinced that a container port at Quonset would have been a bad idea.

Also:

http://www.growsmartri.com/

Although I understand the reasoning, it does make me kind of sad (again) to see fidelity developing 275,000 sq. ft. of office space in Smithfield. It bothers me for a couple reasons. One, it would obviously be nice to have another 275000 sq. ft. of office space used Downcity, whether they built their own tower or not, and two, driving out that way used to be relaxing and now it is turning into congested suburban sprawl everywhere. RI is going to look like northern NJ.

Edited December 14, 2005 by gregw

[brick]

At least a lot of the projects are in urban areas now. That definitely has a lot to do with the Historic Tax Credit.

Check out these anti-sprawl sites:

http://www.sierraclubri.org/sprawl/index.htm

Scroll down and check out the "Nasty Nine." Nine biggest sprawl projects from 2000, though I'm still not convinced that a container port at Quonset would have been a bad idea.

IMO the Fidelity thing and also the Amica thing big fumbles on the part of the city of Providence and the RIEDC. I didn't know that a mall was planned for Smithfield, although this list is somewhat old so I guess they are talking about what now has the Home Depot and other big boxes in it rather than a mall in direct competition with Providence Place, Emerald Square, and Warwick.

The amount of work required on Rt. 116 for Amica is somewhat staggering. I can't imagine why the city council and zoning boards allowed a project that created such a radical change. They should have asked them to build on the Lincoln Mall site, if anything.

[gregw]

Has this been posted already? Not a lot that I haven't heard of through UP, but a lot of renderings that I haven't seen before.

http://www.providenceri.com/vision/A%20Vis...0Providence.pdf

[Garris]

Has this been posted already? Not a lot that I haven't heard of through UP, but a lot of renderings that I haven't seen before.

http://www.providenceri.com/vision/A%20Vis...0Providence.pdf

Great find!! There's tons of interesting renders in here, and many projects I've never heard of. Checking out all of these companies websites should keep Frankie busy for weeks!

I'm not even sure where to start commenting. I'll need to give this a couple of looks over... On first blush, however, I like the tiny Capitol Cove render. I hope, if it's ever built, it looks that urban. The Federal Hill development near Dean looks great as well!

- Garris

[KRC]

Although I understand the reasoning, it does make me kind of sad (again) to see fidelity developing 275,000 sq. ft. of office space in Smithfield. It bothers me for a couple reasons. One, it would obviously be nice to have another 275000 sq. ft. of office space used Downcity, whether they built their own tower or not, and two, driving out that way used to be relaxing and now it is turning into congested suburban sprawl everywhere. RI is going to look like northern NJ.

As a native Jersey boy, I can tell you RI is nothing even close to Northern New Jersey.

[Recchia]

Federal Hill is really gonna get some height with the condos and Hotel Napoli.

[Garris]

Federal Hill is really gonna get some height with the condos and Hotel Napoli.

Absolutely, some long overdue height. Sign me up for Heritage Place on Federal Hill. I like the overall look and idea of 400 South Main as well, although there isn't a lot of detail there.

- Garris

PS: Oh, regarding the 383 West Fountain that Armory Revival wants to do, the one that the WBNA is moaning looks too high, boy, I think that design could stand to gain some height.

Edited December 17, 2005 by Garris

[Cotuit]

I *believe* Heritage Place on Federal Hill is contigent upon one more parcel being bought, and the owners are holding out.

We could see a few interesting infill projects on South Main coming up soon.

[Frankie811]

Checking out all of these companies websites should keep Frankie busy for weeks!

- Garris

HEY!!!!!!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!!!!!!!!!!! I resemble that remark.

[Garris]

I *believe* Heritage Place on Federal Hill is contigent upon one more parcel being bought, and the owners are holding out.

Wouldn't that figure... That's a great looking project, and just what Federal Hill needs. Federal Hill probably has the most potential of any neighborhood in Providence outside of Downcity, and the types of projects in the pdf could really start to elevate it to the feel of some of Boston's urban squares.

We could see a few interesting infill projects on South Main coming up soon.

Wouldn't that be nice. South Main is actually one of the major "gateways" off the highway to the city, and it's a bit underwhelming now, mostly a hodgepodge of buildings and surface parking. That 400 S. Main Project could do a lot to change that impression.

I was disappointed to see a Tim Horton's drive through targeted for Smith St. Smith St., like Chalkstone, has the potential to be a really urban area. There should be more urban zoning there to promote this, rather than the apparent suburban style zoning orienting to structures like drive throughs... That part of Smith Hill is already is pretty ugly, and this will make it worse...

- Garris

[gregw]

You'd think with all the really good projects that they could be a little more selective and not have to pad the list with a Tim Horton's drive thru. That's hardly anything to write home about.

On another topic, I really like the render of the West Fountain St. project, which I guess has already cleared the Planning Commission.

Wouldn't that figure... That's a great looking project, and just what Federal Hill needs. Federal Hill probably has the most potential of any neighborhood in Providence outside of Downcity, and the types of projects in the pdf could really start to elevate it to the feel of some of Boston's urban squares.

Wouldn't that be nice. South Main is actually one of the major "gateways" off the highway to the city, and it's a bit underwhelming now, mostly a hodgepodge of buildings and surface parking. That 400 S. Main Project could do a lot to change that impression.

I was disappointed to see a Tim Horton's drive through targeted for Smith St. Smith St., like Chalkstone, has the potential to be a really urban area. There should be more urban zoning there to promote this, rather than the apparent suburban style zoning orienting to structures like drive throughs... That part of Smith Hill is already is pretty ugly, and this will make it worse...

- Garris

[Cotuit]

Wouldn't that figure... That's a great looking project, and just what Federal Hill needs. Federal Hill probably has the most potential of any neighborhood in Providence outside of Downcity, and the types of projects in the pdf could really start to elevate it to the feel of some of Boston's urban squares.

From what I heard, they are looking to develop the parking lot on the right between Dean and Depasquale and the next three buildings to the west of that (the one including Casablanca Cafe, the one where Chef Ho's is, and the one Zooma is in, all three would come down). What I heard was the owner of the Chef Ho's building was holding out.

Looking at the rendering and site map for Heritage Place, it looks like they may have given up on the Chef Ho's building, so Chef Ho's and Zooma would not be part of this development, looks like the building with Casablanca in it would be coming down though (I believe Casablanca is 235 Atwells and that's the address of the development).

I have mixed feelings about those buildings coming down, but mostly I'm for it. Zooma looks nice now, but it's one story and pretty unremarkable. The Chef Ho's building is a nice four story structure, it could clean up nice but my heart wouldn't break if it were gone. I'd like it to stay just so we don't see all neighbouring parcels combined into one big homogenous structure, at the very least it gives variety to the streetscape. The building Casablanca is in is nice at first blush, but apparently it has been allowed to fall into disrepair and realistically is nothing better than a tear down. You can especially see this in it's one story rear building which is literally in the process of collapsing.

The color rendering for Heritage Place is interesting, only the 3 and 4 story liner buildings are colored in, but the 6 story building to the rear is new construction and part of the development. I guess they want to distract neighbourhood groups from the 6 story structure and make them focus on the quaint liner buildings. Personally, I'd like to see the back building go up to 8 floors. I also like that the storefront on the corner is marked 'Book Store.' Not that that means that it will be a book store, they just drew that in, but it's nice to see people thinking about retail and not just restaurants on the hill.

Thom Deller showed a rendering of the Hotel Napoli at the Federal Hill charrette, and it seemed from the way he was talking about it that it was far from a certainty. I for one would love to see it happen, and if not a hotel, would be happy to see condos or apartments in that form.

Edited December 18, 2005 by Cotuit

[Garris]

Thanks for all that info Cotuit. I was going to ask about the building in the back of the render, but it now appears it's new. Great!

Again, Federal Hill has so much potential. I was in Inman Square this past weekend, and really, it's no nicer than Federal Hill or many of Providence's neighborhoods. I'd really love to see the Federal Hill developments take off.

And, while I agree with your concern about the architectural diversity of Federal Hill, all of the proposed projects are very different, not only from each other, but from what's there now. I think it'll all look great in the end. Actually, it looks like what is proposed for Federal Hill has more interest than developments almost anywhere else in the city.

- Garris

Edited December 19, 2005 by Garris