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PROPOSED: Vista Della Torre

Cotuit

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Lone Ranger Burg

Lone Ranger

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I stand corrected. Outside of those in Providence, there is in fact one other non-residential high-rise building in our metro area. That would be Citizen's Plaza in Woonsocket.

I suppose, for that matter, Pawtucket City Hall must also count.

For my purposes, I'm counting as a highrise any building 10 floors or taller -- or in the case of Pawtucket City Hall, its sheer height, at 209 feet.

Anyway, my point stands.

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Lone Ranger Burg

Lone Ranger

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I believe there are several buildings in Pawtucket in excess or about 10 stories. But they are hardly remarkable and wouldn't make anyone feel warm and fuzzy about tall buildings.

Outside of Providence, I have these buildings in our metro area listed above 10 stories:

Ship's Cove, ?? feet, 18 floors (Fall River)

Riverview Towers, ?? feet, 18 floors (Fall River)

The Tower at Carnegie Abbey, 220 feet, 17 floors (Portsmouth)

Pawtucket City Hall, 209 feet, 3 floors (Pawtucket)

Towers East Apartments, ?? feet, 16 floors (Pawtucket)

Regency Towers, ?? feet, 16 floors (New Bedford)

Fogarty Manor, ?? feet, 15 floors (Pawtucket)

Slater Hill House, ?? feet, 15 floors (Pawtucket)

Mitchell Heights, ?? feet, 14 floors (Fall River)

Cardinal Medeiros Towers, ?? feet, 14 floors (Fall River)

Point Gloria Condominiums, ?? feet, 14 floors (Fall River)

Knightsville Manor, ?? feet, 13 floors (Cranston)

George H. Cottell Heights, ?? feet, 12 floors (Fall River)

Barresi Apartments, ?? feet, 12 floors (Fall River)

Arlington Manor, ?? feet, 12 floors (Cranston)

Melville Towers, ?? feet, 12 floors (New Bedford)

Clyde Tower, ?? feet, 11 floors (West Warwick)

City View Towers, ?? feet, 11 floors (East Providence)

Brook Village Apartments, ?? feet, 11 floors (North Providence)

Citizen's Plaza, ?? feet, 11 floors (Woonsocket)

Kennedy Manor, ?? feet, 10 floors (Woonsocket)

Crepeau Court, ?? feet, 10 floors (Woonsocket)

Park View Manor, ?? feet, 10 floors (Woonsocket)

Saint Germain Manor, ?? feet, 10 floors (Woonsocket)

Forand Manor, ?? feet, 10 floors (Central Falls)

On this list, all of the buildings whose names aren't emboldened are, to the best of my knowledge, residential buildings intended for the poor and/or elderly. And I emboldened the condo in Fall River, Gloria Condominiums, only because I'm not sure what it is.

In other words, as I said before, in our metro area, highrise = slum.

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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vistadellatorre_rendering.jpg

vistadellatorre_plan.jpg

I went to a meeting tonight on this project, which until now we've been calling "The Atwells Parcel." Apparently its name is Vista Della Torre.

I'll pick some of the points out of my notes.

Architect is Newport Collaborative, the engineering firm is Garafalo & Associates.

180 luxury condo units

275 Parking spaces

330 foot tower

32 stories

40 foot garage

Garage 1 story below ground, 4 above

Bradford Street will be partially abandoned and "recirculated" via Federal, Newton, and a new east-west street that runs between Newton and Bradford next to Camille's.

East of Bradford Federal Street is one way westbound from the Service Road.

Parking will be for the tower residents, Dominca Manor (33 spaces at Dominica Manor are displaced by the tower, and valet for Camille's.

A 2 story arch will be placed over Federal Street. This allows for covered valet services for the residents. Archway will be lit and manned 24-hours a day.

First floor will feature a cafe facing a reflecting pool in the new park that will sit between the tower and the Service Road.

A city required parking study will be conducted. City wants more street parking on the new/reconfigured streets.

I asked about the anticipated impact on traffic at Dean and Federal, they think it will be minimal, I think the city should make them rebuild that intersection and install a traffic/walk light.

No buildings will be taken or removed, construction is all on current surface lots.

The mechanicals will be concealed in the top.

Garage will have a facade to conceal its use, it will not look like a garage. Exact materials haven't been chosen yet.

Architect used the following words to describe the structure. "Character," "Charm," "Ornament," "Detail."

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Garris Town

Garris

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Huh... Don't know whether to cheer, laugh, or cry at this one... My instincts are to do the last two.

My first impressions are as follows:

- Newport Collaborative did this?? Huh... Huge disappointment, and it has barely changed since the initial cool response it received...

- Contextually designed to Dominica Manor apparently... Ick...

- I don't have a problem with height along the service road, except this isn't actually on the service road but set back. It doesn't interact with anything, it doesn't create a streetscape of any type. It's just sitting in the middle of a lawn. It feels like the kind of building that would have been proposed for Yonkers, Stamford, or Fort Lauderdale in the 1960's.

My problems aren't height or density. It's that this is the kind of project that violates almost every urban principle that nearly everyone has universally recognized as "good" for Providence in the 21st Century. This is Regency Plaza 2008...

- Garris

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JimmyGreaves Hamlet

JimmyGreaves

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Despite all the flack that WBNA takes, I welcome their opposition to this project for all the reasons mentioned in the thread today and yesterday:

No street interaction.

Abandoning a street that is still utilized thus creating a super block.

Lack of a compact design that should fit inside the street grid.

Incorporation of a park of which its usefulness I am skeptical.

I am also not bothered by the height and density as I am by its lack of street interaction and compact design, two important principles of Providence Tomorrow. Developers need to unlearn the mistakes of bad post-war development which center on auto-oriented design, super blocks, and bad pedestrian interaction and embrace the more traditional urban building principles of the late 19th/early 20th century. I am not saying that all designs be Victorian, but like Lone Ranger said, build to the street, go easy on the auto accommodations, and connect to the surrounding neighborhood.

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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um... wow. i live like a block from this place.

i like the idea behind it, but it just doesn't do anything. the park and cafe/retail seem too hidden to me. the only customers will end up being residents of this and dominca manor. same goes for the use of the park. it lacks interaction with the rest of federal hill. the only way i can accept abandoning bradford street is if the garage was accessible to the public and if it also had leased spaces for all the restaurants east of dean to use as valet spaces so that the lots can be built upon.

i agree with cotuit that making federal st one way to bradford is a great idea. it's pretty tight there as is. would it be a public road underneath this place? i also agree with him on the traffic light with walk signals at dean and federal. while it would put 3 traffic lights very close to each other, that intersection is crazy, and living on bond street right at the intersection, it's not very safe to cross or drive through at times.

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