Category Archives: Development

Copy the past

An article shedding light on the idea of copying the past has been published in The Washington Post. “Recognizing a revival in pattern books,” by Kirstin Downey, treats the construction of houses from pattern books with examples of really nice … Continue reading

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Column: Kennedy Plaza’s future spins its wheels

Standing on the steps in front of City Hall, several people waited for a tour of Kennedy Plaza to begin, followed by a public discussion of its future. We wondered why the front doors of so many important Providence public … Continue reading

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Kennedy Plaza reminder

Wednesday’s tour of Kennedy Plaza and panel discussion of its future, sponsored by the New England chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, is described below: Vision for Greater Kennedy Plaza: Walkabout and Panel Providence, Rhode Island Wednesday, October … Continue reading

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A kinder, gentler Zaha

Lightening up on her typical aesthetic slash-and-turn violence, Zaha Hadid has designed a genocide museum and institute south of downtown Phnom Penh to honor the dead of Pol Pot’s savage regime. The commemoration has inspired Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright … Continue reading

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Trad clearinghouse?

How about a clearinghouse for traditional projects? Prompted by a conversation this morning with the Washington, D.C., architect and planner Nir Buras, I am thinking of starting a new blog, associated with this ol’ Architecture Here and There blog, where … Continue reading

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Parcel 12 revisited

The Carpionato Group has sent me two images of its 2006 design for a proposed hotel at the northeast corner of Kennedy Plaza that fell through. It is of interest because a new hotel proposal, by First Bristol Corp. of … Continue reading

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KP discombobulation

Here is a piece about Kennedy Plaza by Brandon Klayko for archpaper.com. Donald Powers, founder of Union Studio Architects and designer of the very nice master plan, above, for Kennedy Plaza proposed in 2013, was clearly the author’s primary source … Continue reading

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Against Adjaye’s agitprop

Adding to the widespread perception that British architect David Adjaye’s affordable-housing project in Harlem looks like a prison, architect Marc Szarkowski offers, on TradArch, this pertinent riposte to the recent mass exercise in droolery from the commentariat: Let’s see, from … Continue reading

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Bad Scupture Park Hotel?

A new proposal has arisen for Parcel 12, the triangular Capital Center District land at the northeast corner of Kennedy Plaza that I’ve long called Bad Sculpture Park, in honor of its cast of uninspiring works of art. The Journal’s … Continue reading

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Attack on Kennedy Plaza

My last post may have unintentionally dissed Burnside Park and Kennedy Plaza, leaving readers with the impression that they were failures, and that Providence civic leaders and city officials, along with the state transit authority, were valiantly riding to the … Continue reading

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