COMPLETE: RISD Chace Center

[gregw]

He's too busy living in the 1890s.

He dosen't seem to be paying much attention to development projects downcity, as of late. His Thursday column ignores what is happening around the city. In fact, I was the one who notified him on the Sierra Suites hotel proposal, which he knew nothing about.

[pdxstreetcar]

theres an official sign posted in the parking lot that the lot is closing june 5, 2006. also the mock ups are gone.

[Frankie811]

http://www.projo.com/business/content/proj...8.134a51bf.html

[Cotuit]

Ground breaking ceremony is June 2nd.

[Garris]

Ground breaking ceremony is June 2nd.

Great news!! Do they know yet what they're breaking ground on? Any new renders?

Despite the recent scaling back of plans, I still find this one of the most exciting projects in the city consider where it is and what it is.

- Garris

[Cotuit]

Any new renders?

I haven't seen any.

[billypc99]

In case you forgot groundbreaking is tomorrow

[CtownMikey]

http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20...2.22057d01.html

"the school has given up trying to light the Chace Center building from inside -- an approach that would have given the building a soft nighttime glow. Instead, the exterior will be illuminated by more conventional means, mainly by floodlights."

great that this project is breaking ground... just sad about this feature being taken away. It seems like a feature that a top art school in the contry could have pulled off

also.. very excited about "On the same floor, a glass-walled skywalk will offer sweeping views of downtown while connecting to the museum's main Radeke Wing."

[Gusterfell]

I presume this is the current design.

I like it. It manages to keep much of the character of the original design, and as one of the articles mentioned, the lower height does seem to fit the streetscape better. Its unashamed modernism will allow it to stand out dramatically from its neighbors; it doesn't need to tower over them as well to make its statement.

[MikeR]

I hope to see new renders of the building in the ProJo after the groundbreaking ceremony. With the New Urbanist convention in Providence this week, it's the perfect time to show off the new design of the building...

[Cotuit]

I presume this is the current design.

Yes. Those are the floor plans I'd seen, but I hadn't seen the rendering yet. I'll be at the groundbreaking today, hopefully I'll get a space under the tent.

[Cotuit]

By the way, the Museum Store will be moving to the ground floor street facing retail space in the Chace Center.

[Garris]

I look forward to hearing about the groundbreaking. I'm of mixed feeling about the new render. I miss the previous design's brick which gave added contextualism to surrounding structures. As we've all previously discussed with G-Tech, what glass is chosen and how it is implimented matters greatly. I look forward to more realistic and detailed renders...

- Garris

[Cotuit]

I just got back from the Groundenting. They had a jack hammer to break the parking lot, but the compressor was full of water so it only dented the pavement.

Regardless, this is officially, In-Progress.

I took a few photos, but there wasn't really much interesting enough to photograph. There is a large sign on site with a large photo of the rendering, check it. I took a photo of it and will post it later.

[Gusterfell]

As we've all previously discussed with G-Tech, what glass is chosen and how it is implimented matters greatly. I look forward to more realistic and detailed renders...

Agreed 100%... It's funny that you mention Gtech. When I came across that rendering this morning, about my first thought was 'I wonder how long it will take David Brussat to get tired of bashing Gtech and start attacking this every week...'

[Cotuit]

[Frankie811]

This project has finally broken ground??

[Cotuit]

This project has finally broken ground??

Yup. opens Fall '08.

[provid]

I like the design but it looks kind of small, almost like the proportions arent correct compaired to the size of a person. Maybe its just the drawing. The guy in the window is huge but the people crossing the road are tiny. The person in red walking on the other side of the street looks like he/she is nine feet tall.

[BJE]

Does anyone else think this render is extremely weak for a world-renowed, Prizkter Prize-winning architect? Modern architects don't seem to get is that the materiality and texture of a building is as important as it's form. What is this thing clad with? Red brick, colored concrete, or pink Dryvit? Is that clear glass and sandblasted glass, or clear glass and metal panels, or gray glass and white precast concrete? Or maybe it's white Dryvit to offset the pink Dryvit?

For the record, I'm fairly neutral about the design, from what I can glean of it. Scale seems OK, at least it maintains the street wall. Carefully detailed and finished, this could be a very attractive piece...or built with standard details and conventional developer-grade construction, it could look like a cheap 1980s office building.

Hopefully RISD knows what they're getting, because we can't really tell from this rendering.

As an anecdote to how important the execution of the glass is, and GTech's handling thereof: on passing the GTech building today, my (non-architecture or design-oriented) wife commented about the "inset corner" portion of the curtain wall -- "it looks like they bought all of the glass factory's leftover windows becuase they were half price...the colors don't match or go together in any logical way." Ouch.

BJE

[dgreco]

I was wondering the same about that part of the G-Tech building, I didn't know if either there was stuff behind the windows to give it an effect of about 5 or 6 different colors, or those aren't going to be perminent in the spots.

[Cotuit]

Does anyone else think this render is extremely weak for a world-renowed, Prizkter Prize-winning architect?

This rendering is credited to Michael O'Bierne who is a RISD alum, I don't think it came out of Moneo's office. Why RISD hasn't decided to use a drawing that came from Moneo's office as the official rendering of this building, I don't know, I guess they wanted to give an alum some props. I agree though, the rendering is not enough to inform an observer of the materials, and if they will in the end like this building. I can say, it is described as a glass and brick "Green" building (not sure what makes it so "Green"), so we shouldn't have to worry about dryvit.

I don't know the material of the glass, but I woudl assume it is mostly clear glass. Facing the street from the ground floor is: A relocated Museum Store, 2nd floor a student gallery, 3rd floor a museum gallery, 4th floor two classrooms, and 5th floor an art studio. The building is described as having "Stunning views of Market Square and Downtown" leading me to believe all the glass should be clear.

As an anecdote to how important the execution of the glass is, and GTech's handling thereof: on passing the GTech building today, my (non-architecture or design-oriented) wife commented about the "inset corner" portion of the curtain wall -- "it looks like they bought all of the glass factory's leftover windows becuase they were half price...the colors don't match or go together in any logical way." Ouch.

I agree, I'm not liking that glass corner, I'm also dissappointed with the metal screens over the garage. They are screens, like a screened porch. I was expecting somesort of perforated metal.

[Garris]

I agree though, the rendering is not enough to inform an observer of the materials, and if they will in the end like this building.

That's really a shame, considering the render for the initial design was one of the more detailed I've seen, giving a fantastic idea of what the building would look like on the street. This one is the polar 180 degree opposite...

I don't know the material of the glass, but I would assume it is mostly clear glass.

That's what I was guessing looking at the render as well. This is one of those designs where the interior will matter to the look of the building possibly more than the exterior, since the exterior is mostly a glass wall with a brick frame, and the majority of what we'll see is the building interior.

The building is described as having "Stunning views of Market Square and Downtown" leading me to believe all the glass should be clear.

Can someone define for me exactly what the modern "Market Square" is? I thought this referred to a historic retail area around North Main/Water St extending from where the Citizen's Bank building is to the courthouse that essentially no longer really exists, as its part of the RISD campus or the park (the last remnant being the 3 Steeple St/New Rivers building)... Here are some historic photos I found:

Can someone clarify this?

- Garris

[Cotuit]

In this image, the building in the center is Market House, which is now a RISD Building. The road on the right with the trolleys is College Street, the road behind Market House is North/South Main. The building at the rear left that is yellowish with bay windows on the upper floors is the Chace Center site, I believe RISD tore that building down when they bought it, not seen in this image, behind Market House is RISDs Bank Building, an early master plan for RISD called for tearing down the Bank Building as well and building a large building were the Bank Building was and where the Chace Center will be, happily that didn't happen. It should be noted that RISDs purchase of Market House saved it from being demolished.

What is called Market Square today (it may have been larger or different in the past) is the area to the left of the Market House, where there is a lone trolley in the image, this sits between Market House and the RISD Auditorium and between North/South Main and the Canal. This area is technically a city park, though RISDs facilities department does provide much of the care and maintanence of this area as they do along the Canal from Steeple Street to College Street. There is a small park to the left of the Market House, which I suppose may also be considered part of Market Square if you consider the Market House to be in the center of Market Square.

As far as I know, the area in front of the Courthouse along the river is now called Memorial Park or Square. The boat landing there is called Memorial Landing if memory is serving me properly.

In this image, Market House is on the extreme right, the buildings to the left are the current site of the RISD Auditorium, today's Market Square is between, and the Chace Center site is at the back of Market Square. When the river was covered, I believe Market Square extended across it.

The top image here appears to be Cathedral Square, that looks like the Mayor Doyle statue that used to sit in the square.

The bottom image is the view out of the Market House. The road running over the river is College Street, Memorial Blvd. runs across the image, and Westminster is the street going off into the distance. The right corner is the current location of 15West, the left corner, the buildings right on the corner are gone, but the taller building is the RISD{sodEmoji.{sodEmoji.|}}Works studio. The large long building is still there, behind the Textron Building. Trolleys met in the area over the river, and I think this area over the river was indeed Market Square. Present day Market Square was actually a street with tolleys on it at this time.

[pdxstreetcar]

Market Square is pathetic... I'm surprised the landscape architecture department hasn't done a project to improve this plaza.

I heard the old building on the Chace site had structural problems when it was torn down, i believe, in the 1940s.