Tag Archives: Waterplace Park

The soggy PVDFest mess

Posted on September 13, 2023 by David Brussat

I’d like to put in a bid for downtown as the site for the next PVDFest. Mayor Smiley moved this year’s event out of downtown to the waterfront along the Providence River. Downtown is where festivals such as PVDFest should … Continue reading →

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Waterplace and WaterFire

Posted on March 3, 2023 by David Brussat

Downtown Providence as seen from northeast, from a spot on College Hill. For some reason, its skyline, which is best seen from the east, is nowhere pictured as viewed from the top of College Street on College Hill. Perhaps because … Continue reading →

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Capital Center Plan, cont.

Posted on November 24, 2022 by David Brussat

The famous napkin from Blue Point Oyster Bar with sketches that do not include moving the Providence River, unless that is the sketch beneath the wine splotch. (Friedrich St. Florian) This second part of Chapter 18, “Capital Center Plan,” from … Continue reading →

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Beauty, Ma’am, if you can keep it

Posted on September 29, 2022 by David Brussat

Raised river walk of boardwalk with chain-link fencing, its ugliness mitigated by ugly building. (City) Forces are gathering to undo much of the good work done in recent decades to improve the city of Providence. Our beautiful new waterfront seems … Continue reading →

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Providence on suicide watch

Posted on March 12, 2021 by David Brussat

Each time news emerges of another plan to renovate Kennedy Plaza, Waterplace Park or other sites in downtown Providence, it gets worse and worse. Now there are plans costing upwards of $140 million to reconstitute Kennedy Plaza, remake Waterplace and … Continue reading →

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Kennedy Plaza is still at risk

Posted on November 17, 2020 by David Brussat

Efforts by the city and state governments to make Kennedy Plaza ugly have not yet succeeded in making it fail. But the attempt to ruin the central public square of Providence is ongoing. The plaza’s beauty has diminished greatly since … Continue reading →

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Imagine all the buildings …

Posted on November 29, 2019 by David Brussat

The other day, flipping through stacks of my old Providence Journal columns seeking a shot of a c. 1750 house in Providence’s old village of Hardscrabble (which I found), I came across a column inspired by a website’s image of … Continue reading →

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Painting in Porto, Port.

Posted on January 8, 2016 by David Brussat

Malcolm Millais, author of Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture, is a British engineer and architect who has retired to Porto, in Portugal, where he has taken up the pastime of painting – as Churchill did after his Gallipoli military … Continue reading →

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St. Florian does Parcel 12

Posted on June 23, 2015 by David Brussat

Disappointment has generally reigned over the proposal by First Bristol to erect a hotel on Parcel 12 in downtown Providence. It has neither enough traditional chops nor the unabashed modernist ugliness to emerge from the slough of suburban schlock. But … Continue reading →

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Dredging? Yes, dredging!

Posted on April 18, 2015 by David Brussat

Yes, dredging. The view above depicts Waterplace Park’s basin at low tide yesterday afternoon. I got a call from Joan Slafsky, among the city’s most “connected” citizens, who helps keep WaterFire running. She promising a surprise if I showed up … Continue reading →

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