From Author:
At a community input session on Sep. 26, roughly 25 residents met in the cafeteria of the Juanita Sanchez school to discuss the 30-year ProvPort Master Plan. Residents of Washington Park and South Providence expressed clear concerns about the environmental, accessibility, and health conditions of the area — describing in strong terms how they felt their…
Read More
Nine developers presented their designs for Parcel 5 in the Jewelry District to the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission on the evening of Sep. 25. With varying designs, retail visions, and missions for the parcel, the Commission will narrow down the pool next time it meets on Oct. 16. The roughly 1.5-acre lot sits right on…
Read More
The Providence Historic District Commission (PHDC) is considering easing the standards for window replacement in Local Historic Districts (LHDs), shifting the objective toward retaining a historic aesthetic rather than insisting on the preservation of original materials when it comes to window replacements. The conversation was part of a broader discussion about revising the PHDC’s standards…
Read More
At the Rhode Island School of Design on the evening of Sep. 18, architect and planner Vishaan Chakrabarti pulled off what can be a difficult feat — getting an audience jazzed about zoning, building codes, and the nitty gritty of urban development. In his talk titled “Getting to Goldilocks: Housing Communities, Building Neighborhoods, Preserving Nature,”…
Read More
The City Planning Commission (CPC), a citizen board “charged with developing the city’s plans for preservation, revitalization, and growth of the city,” met the evening of Sept. 17. They concluded with a discussion about the potential zoning changes that could follow the approval of Providence’s Comprehensive City Plan. Though the Comp Plan has not been…
Read More
Over 45 Providence residents gave testimony to the City Council criticizing and praising the draft Comprehensive Plan on Monday evening. Housing, density, transit, mobility, and preservation were chief concerns for many attendees, in addition to environmental justice and the fate of Kennedy Plaza. While many attendees ardently supported upzoning throughout the city to increase Providence’s…
Read More
After a summer of public input, discussion, and other programming, Providence City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed Comprehensive Plan at 5:30 pm this coming Monday, Sept. 16 at 25 Dorrance Street. To gain a broader understanding of what comprehensive planning can look like across the country, the Providence Preservation Society hosted…
Read More
With over thirty years of experience authoring and implementing visionary urban architecture, Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder and creative director of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, where he leads the firm’s growing global portfolio of cultural, institutional, and public projects. Chakrabarti is also the author of the book A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for…
Read More