Archives For URI
Ted Nesi reports for WPRI about the possibility of the South Street Power Station (aka the Dynamo House) being used as the location for the proposed URI/RIC Nursing School.
Yesterday Brown announced their intention to build their expanded School of Engineering on College Hill, ending speculation that Brown would use the old power station located in the Jewelry District.
Kudos to Governor Chafee for sliding into his fiscal 2014 budget proposal $500,000 in state money for design work for an advanced-nursing school in Providence’s Knowledge District. (We still much prefer the more charming and evocative term “Jewelry District.”) The school would be a joint venture of Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island. The concept calls for nurses in training to spend their first two years at the RIC or URI nursing schools and then to complete their program at the new facility, presumably taking a year or two to do that.
So far, Rhode Island developer Churchill and Banks has expressed an interest in land on the east side of the Providence River, while University of Rhode Island President David Dooley said the university was considering 195 land on the west side as a site for a nursing school to be jointly operated by URI and Rhode Island College.
Other interested developers have not been identified. Proposals will be announced prior to meetings they are discussed at (meeting notices tend to be posted the Friday afternoon before the Commission’s Monday meetings). Two proposals may be up for discussion at the next meeting which is scheduled for February 11th.
The University of Rhode Island plans to increase its presence in the state’s capital city, according to President David M. Dooley, as part of a strategy to better prepare its students for success as well as help Rhode Island’s economy grow out of the hole it is in.
Speaking at a Rhode Island Foundation media breakfast this morning, URI President Dooley among other things reiterated his desire to locate a joint URI/RIC nursing school in the Jewelry District and called expansion of Commuter Rail to South County ‘essential.’
The Boston Globe reports on plans by Harvard University to jump start development on its land in North Allston by teaming up with private partners. The University’s plan would bring in private investors to develop a life sciences complex in the Boston neighborhood across the Charles River from their main Cambridge campus.
Does any of this sound familiar, a large institution, crossing a river, developing life sciences”¦ Of course we’re obsessed right now with the Route 195 land, but the fact is, Brown already has numerous holdings in the Jewelry District, chiefly along Richmond Street, before even going after Route 195 parcels.
→ A team of scientists from the University of Rhode Island (URI) has recently published an article describing a self-healing concrete that would be inexpensive to produce. Such concrete could help reduce structure repair costs, lower cement-production carbon emissions, and even save lives, as it will help design safer buildings. [The Future of Things]
→ Markets Investing In Neighborhood Health  Shop Here
Two corner stores on the Southside of Providence will get a healthy store “makeover” this week thanks to the Providence Healthy Corner Store Initiative (PHCSI), a new initiative that unites Rhode Island farmers, corner store owners, and community residents to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain items, low-salt and low-sugar canned goods, and healthier snacks available in Providence neighborhoods. [Providence Daily Dose]
→ Paul Krugman: America Goes Dark [The New York Times]
→ Traffic reduction: An urgent public health priority
Traffic is the leading cause of death among children worldwide and the leading cause of death among 1-34 year olds in the United States. So, why isn’t traffic considered the top threat to public health by the CDC, WHO and federal, state and local governments? [Greater Greater Washington]
→ The WPA’s legacy in Rhode Island [WPRI Blog]
Photo (cc) J. Stephen Conn
Documentary and Discussion Ask
‘Where Do the Children Play?’KINGSTON, RI – A provocative documentary film, “Where Do the Children Play?,” will be shown at a free public screening on Tuesday, March 30 from 7:00-9:00pm at the University of Rhode Island’s new Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences (Flagg Road, Kingston, RI 02881). The film examines an issue of growing concern among pediatricians, mental health experts, educators and environmentalists: more and more children are growing up today with few opportunities for unstructured play, especially outdoors.
An audience discussion about the ideas explored in the film will follow, led by Providence Children’s Museum director Janice O’Donnell; Meadowbrook Waldorf School faculty chair Su Rubinoff; RI Families in Nature founder and director Jeanine Silversmith; and URI Child Development Center director Sue Warford.
One of our Facebook fans shared this link with us.
A 40-minute video of Brown University’s assistant vice president for planning, design and construction, Michael McCormick discussing Browns recent campus building and near future plans, including much on the Jewelry District plans. There is a link to a 10-minute condenced version to give you the gist of what he had to say. The video is not embedable, so you’ll have to follow the link over to Brown’s site to view it.
In other Jewelry District News, ProJo reports today that URI and RIC are planning to team up to build a Nursing School on a portion of the land being vacated by Route 195 in the Jewelry District. The plan requires approval by the General Assembly to post a bond measure to voters.
If approved, construction could start in 2012 and be completed by 2013.
URI and RIC each seperately had plans to build nursing schools and will save $10 million by teaming up to build one $60 million facility in the capital city.
URI’s new President, David M. Dooley has stated that he would like to increase the university’s presense in Providence.
4th Annual Marcia Marker Feld Lecture on Social Justice and the City
SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE FOR RHODE ISLANDJohn Landis, PhD, AICP
Crossways Professor & Chair, Department of City and Regional Planning
University of PennsylvaniaTuesday April 20th, 2010, 7:00 PM
The University of Rhode Island
Feinstein Providence Campus
80 Washington Street
Providence, Rhode IslandFREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – PLEASE DISSEMINATE WIDELY
For directions and other information, uri.edu/provRSVP: Rosa Carmona-Barros rbarros@uri.edu 401-277-5239
Professor Landis received his B.S. from MIT and his Ph.D. from Berkeley. He taught at URI during the 1980s, and was very popular with students and colleagues alike. He subsequently taught at Berkeley and Georgia Tech, moving to Penn in 2007. His interests span a variety of urban development topics; his recent research and publications focus on growth management, infill housing, and the geography of urban employment centers.
Together with several generations of Ph.D. students, Professor Landis developed the California Urban Futures series of urban growth models. He is currently engaged in a National Science Foundation-funded project to model, forecast, and develop alternative spatial scenarios of U.S. population and employment patterns and their impacts on travel demand, habitat loss, and water use through 2050. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Planning Association and Housing Policy Debate, and is a member of the Urban Land Institute.
