Yesterday's ProJo had
an article about the first building to go up in downtown Providence in a decade. To be built on the first dirt lot you see when entering downtown from Rt 95, the GTECH building will occupy an amazingly important spot in Capital Center, as both a gateway to the city and one of the buildings that will urbanistically define Waterplace Park.
The article includes these two sketches, which are fine teasers, but we want more!
I'd go to these Design Review Committee meetings if I wasn't 1,500 miles away, so I can't tell you more about the design.
David Brussat's not happy, though. I share his disdain for anything modernist, so I'm a bit concerned. There will be, I think, three separate terraces at different levels, which is not something I'd like to see on a building in this urban setting. Terraces tend to mess with cornice lines and can give a building an uneven feel.
The desired setbacks, to allow sidewalks up to three times wider than normal, seems like an excellent idea. At 11 stories, the extra width between building edge and the mall won't be a problem. I really like the parking garage bridge from Francis Street which marks the pedestrian entrance to Waterplace (you can see it in the first sketch).
In the second sketch you can get a better idea of what the outside walls will look like. Note the lack of adornment on the windows, which I hate. That will mean the GTECH building will look more like
One Citizens than the
new Marriott.
The Design committee "raved" about the design, so it looks like this building will get built close to as is. Em says she's heard this story before and won't believe it until they cut the ribbon. I'm getting to the point where you could put almost anything there and I'd be happy. This spot has been undeveloped for far too long. The original plan for Capital Center called for all the land to be filled in by now, and we're not even halfway there. We even lost the Gravity Games because of a plan to develop this site that ended up falling through (
here's what we would have gotten had it been built).
The guys at
Art in Ruins have more, though they want something even more modern! NO!
Here's
a couple shots I took last September of the building site.
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Now Garris and Cotuit have somewhere to play without making the cartoon post the most off-topic commented entry ever!
You two are getting bossy, but I do want to encourage people to tell me what to post on. I’m at the mercy of my readers. And Garris, I put this up 2 months ago, but I haven’t been able to give it the attention it needs. Once I get back to RI I will probably start working on it much more: RI URBlog
I feel so powerful bossing bil around!
I think I may be in the minority around here, in that I don’t only don’t mind modernism, but I quite like it (when done right, which is sadly too rarely). I’d love to see some glass and steel in Capital Centre to play off the brick and stone surrounding it.
I did see the GTECH architect has GTECH on their list of projects, but it’s not linked to anything like the others. We’ll all need to keep our eyes on it. ADD, Inc.’s website is http://www.addinc.com. Nothing there about Parcel 2 yet that I could see.
I like the slope leading into Waterplace Park in the GTECH design. I think the developers of the mall really f’d up the mall’s interaction with Waterplace Park. Having to climb all those stairs to Francis Street, then more stairs to the Winter Garden is just not good. I know the train tracks are an obstacle, but there could have been a passageway under Francis on the GTECH side of the river, with an entrance to the mall at river level where the parking garage entrance is now. Car-centric planning.
I hear what you are saying bil about getting to the point of just wanting something, anything to be built. It seems there are so many proposals lined up for the city, we just need to get one to break ground and hopefully start some momentum for the others to follow.
The UrbanRI blog looks good, I look forward to you having more time for it. If anyone is interested, and not to take away from any of bil’s cool stuff, I post at a site called UrbanPlanet which has a Providence section (mostly just me talking to myself and random people saying, ‘that’s nice’…). Feel free to look, comment, point laugh…
http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showforum=50
Actually Cotuit, though I’ve never done a poll, I think Em and I are the only anti-modernists here. I’m a hardcore Kunstlerite.
See you at Urban Planet!
I agree with you that the wide sidewalks and bridge ramp are nice ideas. I’ll wait to see more models/drawings before deciding on the terraces. They can actually be well done, as several buildings in Vancouver have accomplished. I’ll try to find some pictures. I’d also like to see what the materials, detailing, and windows look like as well, as that can make or break a design.
As for modernism vs. non-modernism, I think like all things, it depends upon the individual design. There’s good and bad retro as well. The Marriott Courtyard is good retro, in my opinion. The 1950′s addition to the Providence Public Library was bad modern. It all depends. Look at Frank Lloyd Wright. His stuff was strikingly modern when introduced earlier last century, but it looks fantastic today. I don’t know how well Gehry’s work will age. I imagine all of his home and museums will age well since there are usually no surrounding structures for reference. His urban stuff… We’ll see.
Regarding Parcel 2, I think it’s going to be hard to have a “landmark” design there. Has anyone ever seen a really good residential high rise design they’ve really liked in any city? I don’t think I have. It’s just too restrictive a format. There’s far more creative potential with office and hotel structures.
Garris