Greater City Providence

Downtown Design Review Committee Special Meeting – November 7, 2016

[alert type=”muted”]Downtown Design Review Committee
Notice of Special Meeting
Monday, November 7, 2016 – 4:45pm
Doorley Municipal Building
444 Westminster Street, 1st Floor Conference Room Providence, RI 02903[/alert]

drc-roundAgenda

Opening Session

  • Call to Order
  • Roll Call

New Business

chestnut-commons-001

chestnut-commons-002

Renderings of proposal for 91 Chestnut Street

1. DRC Application No. 16.30: I-195 Redevelopment District Parcel 30/91 Chestnut Street – Proposal by Waldorf Capital Management, LLC to construct a new mixed-use building on the property. The DRC will conceptually review the project and make a recommendation to the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission.

Pre-Application Review

2. 217 Washington Street (Providence Public Library) – Proposed exterior renovations to the Empire Street building (1954 addition). This item is for discussion only. No action will be taken by the DRC at this meeting.

Adjournment

[alert type=”muted”]Agenda [/alert]

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

8 comments

  • Are those roof decks?? Well done!

    What are the specs of this project? # of apartments, retail units, etc?

    When is this supposed to be completed?

  • Some seriously uninspired architecture. It’s great to see development but not when it’s so bland and repetitive. Hopefully better things will come along and this will blend into the background.

  • I think the architecture is meant to fit into the surrounding as a industrial/post industrial section of the city. The downtown/jewelry district line is a hot spot. The new JWU building is really pulling pedestrian traffic further down Chestnut as well as the renovations to other buildings in the area. Developing residential is a great way to extend the growth of that area. Great location, highway, downtown, providence river ect.

  • Although pretty uninspired, I think the rendering doesn’t do it any justice either. I think this will fit in just fine, honestly.

  • They should take a look at how Oslo revitalized its downtown waterfront with residential & commercial property and an art museum, all using striking but varied contemporary architecture. It’s one of the best planned urban designs I’ve seen & experienced.

  • Agree on pulling pedestrian traffic towards the South… Hopefully this design has street level retail and other developments have the same. I was told that their would be a skybridge connecting two buildings over the road somewhere over there — anyone else hear that?

    We need more non-restaurant retail, boutiques, and galleries to fill up the street levels — for that to happen, we need lower rents — so we need some “micro retail” options to place pressure on the landlords. They should be lining these new buildings with 400 sq ft micro units with utilities included and attracting mini-makers to the area.

  • I’m also surprised that no one has mentioned the ground breaking on the triangle lot for the new hotel. Happened yesterday.

  • At the meeting. Already the brief flash of the updated rendering looks a little more fleshed out. I’ll try to get pictures.

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