By Kevin Shalvey
PBN Staff Writer
When the R.I. Department of Transportation removes the downtown section of Interstate 195, state and city leaders hope that whatever’s built on the 19.2 acres that are made available for development will have an impact on the culture, history and economy of Providence.
Providence Preservation Society Executive Director George Born said last week that it has “the potential to undue the damage done when the highway was built in the first place.”
The idea that historic mills and buildings should be preserved was not at the forefront of city planning at that time, he said.
“Re-stitching the grid of the streets is the first step,” said Born. “Optimally, new construction on vacant land will be both compatible with the remaining historic context, while also being differentiated from it as new work.”
Last week, a partnership involving the DOT, the R.I. Economic Development Corporation and the City of Providence took the first step in studying the potential impact of what goes there. On Sept. 30 the partners announced that Cambridge, Mass.-based Chan Krieger Sieniewicz will study development options for the area.
RIEDC Executive Director Saul Kaplan said CKS beat out eight other firms for the $250,000 contract, which is to be funded by DOT.
“CKS specifically brought a lot of experience on similar projects – waterfront and urban,” said Kaplan, a member of the selection committee. “They’ve worked on high-impact, game-changing development opportunities around the country.”
Founded in 1984 and based in Cambridge, Mass., Chan Krieger Sieniewicz is a 35-member firm that offers a full range of design and planning services. CKS Principal and Project Manager Patrick Tedesco said last week that his firm has worked on similar highway-removal studies in Louisville, Ky., and in Cincinnati and Akron, in Ohio.
Co-founder and Principal Alex Krieger, who will lead the CKS team, served as an adviser to the Capital Center Commission between 1990 and 1998. The firm also worked on Rhode Island School of Design’s campus master plan. While that experience will create a base for going forward, a lot has changed in Providence, Tedesco said. A new Comprehensive Master Plan for the city is in the works and the firm will study other planning efforts being made throughout the city, Tedesco said.
“We’re not going to be the first ones looking at this, clearly,” he said. “And we’re certainly aware of all the abutters and their interests. … But it’s really the public benefits that we’re going to be engaging in.”
One of those abutters, Johnson & Wales University, will be seeking about four acres of the land, Vice President Christopher O. Placco said after the announcement last week. The school has been doing some serious work to that area and is looking forward to working with CKS. “I think they will add a sense of formality, a sense of structure to the process that hasn’t existed to date,” he said. “Johnson & Wales has made a significant investment and our master plan, which is now part of the public record, which shows that we still have significant investments to make there.”
According to RIEDC, the study will include information about expanding the city’s commercial tax base; increasing income, sales and corporate taxes; creating high-wage jobs; assuring development is aligned with zoning and land-use regulations; creating pleasing connectivity and integration with the area’s parks; and the parcels’ relationship to surrounding districts.
Kaplan emphasized RIEDC’s push toward a knowledge-based economy.
“There’s a strong economic-development story here,” he said. “What CKS will do is help us integrate all of the work that has gone on already and help us focus on the optimal way to move these parcels into the marketplace.”
Final contracts are now being drawn up and the plan should be completed by the end of the year, Kaplan said. •
