Planning and Architectural Review Committee

The Planning and Architectural Review (PAR) Committee serves as the society’s primary planning and design review body. Through our cooperative design review process, PPS promotes a respect for the scale, rhythm, and patterns of urban development in Providence; a sensitivity to historic fabric, neighborhoods, and landscapes; and thoughtful and appropriate design to benefit the city culturally, economically, and environmentally.

Local professionals in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, preservation, and development comprise the PAR committee, which reviews and advises on restoration and adaptive reuse projects, new construction in historic areas, and urban design issues.  PPS’s participation in the design review process has established its credibility as a local arbiter and advocate.

The committee reviews a broad spectrum of residential, commercial, and institutional projects, and PAR has offered comment on scores of building designs and planning studies that shape Providence. Examples of projects reviewed include design guidelines, institutional master plans, neighborhood redevelopment, applications for zoning variances, waterfront planning and development, demolition requests, transportation planning, among many others.

PPS invites developers and designers to present projects to PAR at monthly meetings. This process includes input and dialogue on specific planning and design issues and results in advice and expertise from a preservation perspective. Project teams receive a letter summarizing PAR’s comments and recommendations, and a copy is often sent to respective commissions that will review the project and to neighborhood associations, elected officials, and other interested parties.