Tag Archives: City Planning

Caretaker’s cottage is history

Posted on November 4, 2019 by

This photograph should shock you. Shot this afternoon, it is what remains of the caretaker’s cottage (or carriage house) at the old Beresford-Nicholson estate on Blackstone Boulevard, in Providence. The address is 315 Slater Ave. It used to front on … Continue reading →

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Two fumbles in Providence

Posted on October 28, 2019 by

Among the eight or so new buildings erected in Providence with virtually zero opposition in the past two years are a pair that ought, by now, to have been reviewed here. And I will get to that. But first: The … Continue reading →

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‘A future, or just history’?

Posted on January 14, 2019 by

A Sunday Globe story, “A Future, or Just History,” about Boston caught my eye. I was arrested by the headline, whose kicker and subhead only added insult to injury: “Trapped in Time” and “No, Faneuil Hall isn’t ‘Boston’ anymore. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Development, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Showdown on Blackstone

Posted on January 10, 2019 by

Next Tuesday’s 4:45 p.m. meeting of the City Plan Commission may tell whether Providence and its citizens can preserve its historical character. A developer wants to demolish the mansion, outbuildings and grounds of the Beresford-Nicholson estate on Blackstone Boulevard, and … Continue reading →

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Veto the tower, Mr. Mayor

Posted on November 26, 2018 by

I wrote a letter to Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza today [Monday]. I sent it by email and then hand-delivered another copy tucked inside my book Lost Providence, where I inscribed the title page in his honor. “Delivered with the sincerest … Continue reading →

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Committee’s Fane flip-flop

Posted on November 9, 2018 by

Learning nothing in its latest public hearing that it did not already know, the Ordinance Committee of Providence City Council reversed itself on Thursday to recommend that the council neuter the city’s zoning laws. It voted three to one to … Continue reading →

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Providential hand on sea rise

Posted on February 13, 2018 by

The Jewelry District Association invited Barnaby Evans to speak about the future of WaterFire. That sent a shiver up my spine. Was the end nigh? No, Evans did not say WaterFire was doomed. He did suggest that sea-level rise might … Continue reading →

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Prov’s City Beautiful parks

Posted on November 30, 2017 by

Catherine Zipf’s piece in today’s Providence Journal, “Bus proposal is appalling,” is dead on. The more you think about it, as Zipf has clearly done, the more difficult it is to imagine a rational reason for the state’s proposal to … Continue reading →

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Tragic London tower lesson

Posted on June 25, 2017 by

The Grenfell Tower that burned in London, costing several score of lives, offers lessons that we can and will again fail to heed. No building can be perfectly fireproof, and no ladder truck can reach beyond 20 stories anyhow. If … Continue reading →

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‘Transforming Providence’

Posted on March 25, 2017 by

Yesterday’s announcement of the publication date of Lost Providence brings to mind that Transforming Providence, by Gene Bunnell, a professor of city planning at SUNY/Albany, has just been published. I am pleased that he has weighed in on the redevelopment … Continue reading →

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