Conservancy eyes bus plaza improvements

WHEELS TURNING: Proponents of improving Kennedy Plaza says that a “well-managed” public space could boost the value of nearby properties. / PBN PHOTO/FRANK MULLIN
WHEELS TURNING: Proponents of improving Kennedy Plaza says that a “well-managed” public space could boost the value of nearby properties. / PBN PHOTO/FRANK MULLIN

The Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy often points to Bryant Park in New York City as the model for a public-private partnership transforming a crime-ridden and desolate urban space into a vital civic center.
The grassy midtown rectangle next to the New York Public Library was known as a drug-infested adjunct to seedy 42nd Street before investments in both sent real estate values soaring and made Bryant Park office space some of the most expensive in the country.
Kennedy Plaza and its surrounding parks in Providence, the area the conservancy was founded to improve (when it was known as Greater Kennedy Plaza) has suffered through some of the same neglect, crime and perception problems as the more rarified space in the Big Apple.
Now this month a team led by the conservancy and featuring a New York nonprofit, local designers and stakeholders from the state, city and business community, is set to release a plan to take an already-improved Kennedy Plaza to the next level.
“We see [improving Kennedy Plaza] as significant as moving the highway and Westminster Street,” said Cliff Wood, executive director of the conservancy. “Ultimately this is an economic-development initiative. If our public spaces are well-managed and we invest in them, they stop being a problem and become an asset with greater property values and tax revenue to support public functions.”
Funded with a $200,000 federal National Endowment for the Arts grant, the conservancy has hired New York’s Project for Public Spaces to study what should go on inside Kennedy Plaza and Providence’s Union Studio and what kind of physical improvements could be made to accommodate them.
At the core of the conservancy plan for Kennedy Plaza and its environs – including Burnside Park, Biltmore Park and the Bank of America Skating Rink – is drawing as many people there as possible. The lesson from Bryant Park, Wood said, is that people picnicking, watching outdoor movies, listening to concerts and having lunch in the park does as much, or more, to reduce crime than police can.
What’s more, achieving a critical mass of activity typically has a positive-feedback effect on an area, with greater foot traffic making it more attractive for businesses to invest there, which draws more people, and so on.
This year, the conservancy has started weekday-evening beer gardens, lunch-time music series, food trucks and children’s storytelling events.
In addition to putting the master plan together, the NEA grant was also used to support events such as the FirstWorks festival this fall.
But unlike Bryant Park and most public spaces that have experienced a dramatic rebirth in recent years, Kennedy Plaza also serves as Providence, and Rhode Island’s, central bus terminal, complicating the task of popularizing the area.
With six lanes of asphalt, traffic and bus drop-off berths separating the park from the Financial District office towers, the plaza isn’t always the most welcoming place.
So as part of the NEA-funded study, planners are working with R.I. Public Transit Authority to find ways the terminal could be slimmed down and made more pedestrian-friendly.
Making the Kennedy Plaza transit hub more efficient was one of the goals laid out in Providence’s Transit 2020 plan completed in 2010, which looked to “disperse” bus berths to four peripheral “hubs” around the plaza.
Joe Haskett, senior associate at Union Studio, wouldn’t offer specifics on what non-RIPTA changes the plan would recommend, but pointed to areas like circulation patterns as potential focus areas.
“How can we enhance what is there and increase the connectivity throughout the park?” Haskett said. “That really hasn’t been looked at holistically.” The city first formed a Kennedy Plaza working group in 2006 and the Greater Kennedy Plaza coalition has been working on improving the area since 2008.
The latest efforts come at a critical time as the largest and most recognizable building on Kennedy Plaza, the former Industrial Trust tower (also known as the “Superman Building”) is set to become vacant early next year.
Although the owner of the building, High Rock Development, hasn’t indicated what its plans are, finding new tenants is likely going to involve a large investment and would benefit significantly from improvements to the park that effectively makes up the property’s front lawn.
In addition to transit improvements and bringing more activities to the plaza, Wood said maintenance of the area is another question that needs to be addressed.
In Bryant Park, property owners pay an assessment that funds upkeep of the park, somewhat like the Providence Downtown Improvement District.
The Downtown Improvement District’s yellow-shirted Clean Team members don’t go into Kennedy Plaza parks, however, which are still maintained by the city Parks and Recreation Department.
Wood said there are union issues with private funding of maintenance and upgrades in the park that have yet to be worked out.
The vision for Kennedy Plaza is part of a much-larger strategy of reviving Providence through better utilization of public spaces like Waterplace Park, the riverwalk and the planned Interstate 195 parks.
Ultimately, Wood sees linking Kennedy Plaza to the necklace of downtown parks that start in the Capital Center and stretch south along the river as critical pieces of economic development.
“If you look at a map, we have all these green spaces and they are all connected, including Kennedy Plaza,” Wood said. •

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