Real estate downturn fails to discourage an Alabama town

The Village of Providence in Huntsville, Alabama, continues development despite the severe real estate downturn. The project was designed in 2002 in a charrette led by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. “They currently have $40 million worth of construction going on, including retail, office, and hotel buildings in the town center, which is larger in scale (3-5 stories) than Huntsville’s historic center (mostly 1-2 stories.),” says town architect Steve Mouzon of Mouzon Design, based in Miami. “While Huntsville is somewhat of an anomaly post-Meltdown, Providence is also doing a number of unusual things that are quite successful.”

The photo at upper right shows the two-sided main street at the heart of the Village of Providence. While the street is somewhat wide, it used to be an arterial designed for relatively high speeds — with four 13-foot-wide travel lanes. The road was redesigned as a main street with two travel lanes, on-street parking, and a central turning lane — which is planned to be converted to a boulevard median.