Providence charrette: the recovery continues

Under a new mayor, the character-rich Rhode Island city hopes to roll back the damage done by I. M. Pei’s master plan. Nearly 500 people crowded into the ballroom at the top of the Biltmore Hotel March 11 to hear Andres Duany tell how downtown Providence — already one of America’s most walkable city centers — should build on its strengths. For the third time since 1991, Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. conducted a weeklong charrette in the Rhode Island capital. After hearing Duany’s ideas, David N. Cicilline, mayor of the 174,000-population city, pronounced the recommendations “doable.” One of the most pressing issues is how to reverse the damage inflicted by the modernist I. M. Pei. In retrospect, the famous Pei was a disaster for New England cities. Fifty miles north of Providence, Pei “was responsible for the plans for the Boston Government Center complex and for the Christian Science church complex — two wastelands,” notes Boston-area architectural historian Maureen Meister. A hundred miles west of Providence, Pei recommended razing many of the Gothic- and Beaux Arts-influenced buildings along the New Haven green — a plan that fortunately never came to full fruition (though unhappy remnants exist, such as an ill-defined open space behind a federal office building). In Providence, Pei authored the early 1960s plan that produced Cathedral Square, a lifeless collection of approximately 800 apartments on the western edge of downtown. Thomas E. Deller, Providence’s planning and development director, calls Cathedral Square “a failure.” David Brussat, design critic of the Providence Journal, calls it a “dead zone.” To be fair, Pei did not design the buildings, many of which are dull brown structures constructed in the 1970s. But Pei did encourage the city to convert a series of small, old blocks into a much larger scale of development featuring pedestrian passages — which in fact the pedestrians disliked and avoided. Ground-floor shops went out of business. “There’s no one there,” said Deller, lamenting the lack of healthy street life in the approximately 600-by-1,200-foot Cathedral Square. Forging better connections More than 1,200 people participated in public discussions during the $200,000 charrette, sponsored by the city, the Providence Foundation, Rhode Island Housing, and Cornish Associates. Cicilline, who won election late in 2002 after longtime Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci was sentenced to a prison term, envisioned the charrette as a “community strategy summit” — a source of ideas on how to continue development of the downtown arts and entertainment district and to connect the downtown to nearby parts of the city. (See Oct.-Nov. 2003 New Urban News.) Duany labeled Cathedral Square “a disgrace,” and proposed reestablishing the “beautiful street pattern” that used to exist there. Rather than knocking down the unattractive 1970s buildings, he recommended adding new edges to some of them. One sketch showed traditional cornices, bay windows, and other historical elements lining the exteriors, creating an environment more appealing to pedestrians. Duany acknowledged that some of the “masking buildings” will not be constructed “until the real estate is more valuable” — which should happen as the downtown continues to perk up. He urged demolition of Bishop McVinney Auditorium, a deteriorating structure from about 1970 that the Catholic Diocese no longer needs. Its removal would help restore the street network. A new square in front of the Catholic cathedral could be established, for use by artists at times and by parking at other times. A bridge carrying Westminster Street (a principal downtown street) across Interstate 95 is much too wide, according to both Duany and Deller. Duany suggested reducing the traffic lanes by building an eight-foot-wide arcade with windows on one side of the bridge. On the opposite side, a 24-foot depth would be converted to simple, unheated stalls with pull-down garage doors — for a farmers’ market or other purposes. This would be Providence’s answer to Italy’s Pontevecchio Bridge and would further the city’s reputation as a city with ambition. The bridge is believed to be strong enough to accommodate such additions. Among the charrette’s other ideas: • Reshape awkward intersections by creating squares that handle vehicular and pedestrian traffic more safely and gracefully. • Improve views from the convention center by redeveloping conspicuous parking lots, thus pulling conventioneers out into the city. • “Try experiments that last for six months,” such as different closing hours for bars, to reduce early-morning disturbances when taverns and clubs send inebriated revelers into the streets. • Encourage dramatic contemporary structures in an area where the downtown meets I-95. The Journal’s Brussat derided the idea as a “proposed sop to the local design elite, a sandbox for the modernists.” • Simplify the sometimes convoluted and slow-moving approval processes for developers. “We’re coming back with a code,” Duany said, “so that people can do things without going through [municipal] boards.” “I think Cathedral Square will happen,” said Douglas Storrs, a partner with Arnold “Buff” Chace in Cornish Associates, Providence’s leading new urbanist developer. “The bridge is easy to do,” he added. “Some things might be a little difficult,” Deller admitted. “In all likelihood, we will create an implementation document and timetable.” Concluded Mayor Cicilline: “It’s going to require all of us to think big.” u