This week on Executive Suite: Colin Kane, chairman of the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission, and Jan Brodie, the commission’s newly named executive director.
Kane and Brodie discuss the commission’s role in redeveloping the land, their vision for the area and their estimates of how long it will take to make significant progress. They also tackle questions about the interim use of the land and the possible broader impact on Rhode Island’s economy.
Notice of Regular Meeting • Monday, June 10, 2013 – 4:45pm
Department of Planning and Development, 1st Floor Conference Room 444 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903
1. DRC Application No. 12.10: 122 Fountain Street (Diocese House / aka the Sportsman’s Inn) Proposal by 122 Fountain, LLC to install new awnings, handrails and signage as part of the renovation of the building into a hotel. (The project received final approval at the 5/14/12 DRC meeting)
2. DRC Application No. 13.11: 195-197 Pine Street (Plantations Hall) Proposal by Johnson and Wales University to create a new opening on the east fac?ade of the Wales Hall building for the installation of a new door and sidelite.
3. DRC Application 13.12: Burnside Park Proposal by the Department of Parks and Recreation to install an interim use temporary structure as part of programming by Greater Kennedy Plaza/Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy.
Summer is here and so is the 2nd Annual Summer Solstice Celebration on the Plaza!
Help us kick off the season with an all day celebration in Greater Kennedy Plaza – with special musical guests Family of the Year, Gentlemen Hall and The Silks, an outdoor beer garden, food trucks and fun family programming and more!
Come early and stay late- there is something for everyone during this day of fun. This event runs from 3PM-10PM and is FREE, all ages and open the public!
Details below!
Grab the kids and head to Burnside Park early. You will find amazing balloon sculptures, interactive activities, and musical performances with Providence Children’s Museum, the Rhode Island Museum of Science & Art, and Girls Rock RI.
Feeling active? Avenue Sandwhich takes over the rink at 4PM running street-style skating, graffiti art and live DJing. And don’t miss afternoon performances by Jump! Dance Company, Girls Rock RI, and Providence Monthly’s “Most Musical Act” the Extraordinary Rendition Band in Burnside Park.
At 6pm grab a refreshing drink and relax in the Trinity Beer Garden while enjoying an evening concert in Bunside Park! Blend the high-handed anthemic choruses of the Killers with the retro synth melodies of MGMT and you’ve got our 7pm band, Boston’s Gentlemen Hall. At 8pm Southern California indie rockers Family of the Year take the stage before local heroes The Silks close the night out beginning at 9pm.
The Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST) is bringing Shakespeare’s perennial favorite, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to Roger Williams National Memorial on North Main Street in Providence for a run of outdoor performances.
Fairies, lovers, officials, and a troupe of bumbling amateur actors – what more could one ask on a late spring evening? The play provides plenty of laughs, strange enchantments, ridiculous lovers’ quarrels and some of the sweetest (and most comical) words ever to flow from the pen of the master playwright.
TRIST Artistic Director Bob Colonna will be at the helm and is promising a fresh and funny look at the play, involving quite a bit of the downtown Providence atmosphere, ranging from local politicians to the plight and energy of the homeless.
This will be TRIST’s third outdoor production at Roger Williams National Memorial. Last year’s As You Like It and 2010′s King Henry VIII attracted record crowds nightly and A Midsummer Night’s Dream promises to do the same. You really don’t want to miss it!
Admission is free and patrons are encouraged to bring blankets, beach chairs or lawn chairs (some limited seating will be provided) and to come early and make use of the Memorial’s picnic tables for, perhaps, a dinner under the stars! The play is appropriate for children (though probably not for the youngest ones who may get a little tired and antsy). Indoor restrooms are provided in the Memorial’s visitor center.
This video rendering shows what the vision for Greater Kennedy Plaza could look like as you move through it.
Photo: Pop-Up Adventure Play
Pop-Up Play Day!
Saturday, May 11 | India Point Park
PROVIDENCE, RI – Providence’s first Pop-Up Play Day takes place at India Point Park on Saturday, May 11 from 12 to 5 PM, presented by the Partnership for Providence Parks, Providence Children’s Museum, the City of Providence, Kidoinfo and other partners.
The event is a free public celebration of child-directed free play that kicks off Playful Providence 2013 – a citywide celebration of play. It will feature a Pop-Up Adventure Playground – an interesting assortment of everyday “loose parts” like sticks and branches, cardboard boxes, fabric and other open-ended materials, with which kids and families can build forts, design structures, invent imaginative playthings and more. The celebration also includes playful activity stations like weaving, wood working and instrument making, plus lively music and a short speaking program at 3:30 PM, featuring Mayor Angel Taveras and Janice O’Donnell, executive director, Providence Children’s Museum.
Playful Providence and Pop-Up Play Day are planned to highlight the critical importance of children’s unstructured, self-directed play for their healthy development. Research shows that play is essential for social, emotional, cognitive and physical growth, yet kids’ time and opportunities for play are increasingly limited.
The second annual Playful Providence is a 5-month citywide celebration of play commemorating Providence’s status as a Playful City. This recognition from KaBOOM!, a national non-profit dedicated to saving play for America’s children, honors cities and towns that make play a priority. The celebration has expanded from 2012, which featured 32 play events presented by 35 park groups and community partners and enjoyed by 1,800 participants over a single weekend.
Playful Providence events held from May through September 2013 will engage kids and families across the city in play, plus promote the Partnership for Providence Parks and draw attention to the important role that volunteer parks groups and community partners have in making great places to play. To learn more about the Partnership for Providence Parks and for announcements of other events, visit ProvidenceParks.org.
Pop-Up Play Day and Playful Providence 2013 are planned by the Partnership for Providence Parks in collaboration with Providence Children’s Museum, the City of Providence (Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, Healthy Communities Office and Office of Sustainability) Mental Health Association of Rhode Island, Friends of India Point Park and other partners.
Rendering from Union Studio Architects
Update (Apr. 22): Union Studio News: Greater Kennedy Plaza
The Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy (DPPC) is set to unveil plans for the transformation of Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence this evening.
Stakeholders in the downtown area including the City, the Parks Department, RIPTA, area businesses and universities, and others have been working on reimagining the plaza for the last 6 years. Over the past 12 months, through an “Our Towns” grant from the NEA, Union Studio Architects has led the process of finalizing that vision.
Among other improvements to be unveiled this evening, the plan calls for improving the bus operations at the heart of the plaza, Kennedy Plaza proper if you will. Through their on-going Comprehensive Operational Analysis, RIPTA has determined that schedule improvements will allow them to reduce the number of berths to 10. These 10 berths can be relocated to the edges of the plaza along Washington and Fulton Streets, allowing the bus-only lanes in the middle of the plaza to be filled in and turned to other public uses. Amy Pettine, RIPTA’s director of planning and marketing told The Providence Journal, “It will be a better experience for riders and a better environment.”
Improvements throughout the Greater Kennedy Plaza area (Biltmore Park, the Skating Center, Burnside Park, and the area from City Hall to the Court House) which will be fully released to the public tomorrow, include better integrating the Skating Center to the wider area allowing for better off-season (summer) use, raised roadways allowing for better pedestrian connectivity throughout the plaza and calming automobile traffic, and a Civic Plaza that DPPC Executive Director Cliff Wood calls a “front porch for City Hall.”
Reconfiguration of the bus stops and improvements infront of City Hall may be completed in 2014. Federal money the City has for roadway improvements would go toward this initial phase. This money is from the Circulator Project, which will be reconfiguring roadways between LaSalle and Emmet Squares this year. Wood told the Providence Journal that the entire project may cost as much as $20 million and depending on fundraising, could take 4 years to realize.
We’ll publish further specifics on the Kennedy Plaza plan tomorrow.
Full Disclosure: I am a member of the Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy Board.
Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick announced The One Fund Boston, to raise money to help those families most affected by the tragic events that unfolded during Monday’s Boston Marathon. To contribute to The One Fund Boston, go to theonefundboston.org.→ The Atlantic Cities: How President Obama’s Budget Proposal Would Affect Cities
President Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2014, released [last week], focuses on economic growth and a strong middle class. Better urban development isn’t the first item on that agenda, but it’s an important part of the administration’s priorities for the coming year.
Three agencies in particular are at the core of that work, with offices dedicated to making sure community development contributes to regional and national economic growth. The president’s 2014 budget would change how each of these agencies invest in community development.
→ The Atlantic Cities: New Chicago Plan: Pedestrians Come First
[I]n the Second City – as in just about every American metro – autos have long dominated city streets and how we think about who uses them, why they exist and what defines them as successful. This summer, though, Chicago is planning to roll out a small-sounding but seismic policy shift: From now on, in the design guidelines for every effort from major streetscape projects to minor roadside electrical work, transportation work must defer to a new “default modal hierarchy.” The pedestrian comes first.
Seven years after initial plans were drafted to develop a park along the west waterfront of the Providence River, recent construction in the Jewelry District — including several University buildings — has altered those design plans. The new park will offer a grassy space with access to the river and outdoor programming that will strengthen connections between College Hill and downtown Providence.
The biggest change the commission made to the park plans was selecting a “parcel” from the initial allotment to offer for commercial development, [Bonnie] Nickerson [director of long-range planning for Providence] said.
The commission hopes to see the park ready for construction by summer 2014 and open to the public within 18 months, in late 2015, Nickerson said.
In response to recent discussions on parking at the State House reader Nicolas R. Mariscal submits a Photoshop rendering (above) of what the State House area could look like with better land use planning. Nicholas says:
I saw your post on the parking situation at the state house, and agree that the surface parking is an eyesore, like it is almost everywhere else around Providence.
So I was bored after class today and photoshopped an aerial image of the RI State House that could get rid of the surface lots, still keeping in mind that most people commuting will drive to work.
Got rid of the surface lots, and feel a parking garage with a nice facade/metal screen, lighting and shops on the first floor could go on the fourth side(blank side) of the odd postmodern plaza in the middle of all the state offices. Creating a nice courtyard between all the buildings.
I like the idea of combining a parking structure with ground floor retail uses on the State House complex grounds. There really is no good place in the immediate area to get a bite to eat or a cup of coffee for state employees or visitors. Retail at a garage could help that, and the central plaza could become a good place for workers and visitors to enjoy thier lunch.
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 Chance of Rain 75°/54° |  Clear 77°/55° | Partly Cloudy 79°/59° | Partly Cloudy 81°/61° |
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