Category Archives: Providence

The lady on the waterfront

In her chapter “The curse of border vacuums” in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs considered waterfronts a potential assassin of liveliness in city districts, not intrinsically so but because they were often poorly used. But … 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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Appetite for Andreozzi

If you have an appetite for lovely houses in grand style, visit on Thursday evening a show of work by Barrington architect David Andreozzi. Not only is Dave a fellow board member of the New England chapter of the Institute … 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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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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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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Jane Jacobs and KP

Jane Jacobs had some interesting things to say in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) about parks, and while Kennedy Plaza is not a park (though it has Burnside Park right next to it), some of it … Continue reading

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Pedestrian pedestrian bridge

A bridge project I’d hoped and prayed was dead has risen to become, for lack of more ambitious possibilities as yet, the likely first part of the Route 195 development project to move forward in Providence. The streets and utilities … Continue reading

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