Urban Connector City Series: Providence First Impressions

When I first heard that CNU 33 was being held in Providence, I was a bit surprised.

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Having spent my first 10 years of childhood between Hartford and Springfield, we constantly visited Boston, New York, the Upstate, the Cape and even Newport, but somehow never Providence.

Arriving late night via train from New York, my very fist impression was how the train station felt so close, yet so separate from the core of Downtown. CNU was held mostly at the Omni Hotel which are directly in the heart of the core but also part of what was obviously an Urban Renewal project.

From the full scall suburban style mall right in the middle of Downtown (and even over a river), and a massive I-95 interchange feeding into a downtown street missing an important crosswalk leg – the signs were clear.

For the most part however, Downtown felt like a scaled down version of sections of Downtown Boston with 5-7 story buildings, some water, tons of history and a beautiful vista from this curved street.

It was a bit weird to see the relative lack of any construction activity, but that’s the realities of today’s economic climate combined with being a low-growth city.

There was however some constuction going on in the former footprint of I-195. The highway was relocated almost 20 years ago a bit to the South and has made way for a beautiful ped bridge with skyline views, public spaces, and infill. It just goes to show how much urban highways suck!

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Providence I found was how cohesive the surrounding neighborhoods feel in connection with Downtown despite the tons of highways.

Being in the South for the past 20 years, it’s crazy to to see so many buildings from the 1700s that are in such good shape.

Overall, I have to say I’m impressed! I always had this notion that Providence was similar to Hartford and Springfield but that’s just not the case.

FURTHER READING

InPhil Designs: InPhil Designs

All ideas: The Urban Connector

Phil Veasley is a Professional Engineer and CNU accredited member working to design safer multimodal infrastructure in cities throughout the US.

My goal is to create cities that are safe and effective for all people to move about outside of cars. To achieve that we have to focus on creating equitable, dense, and vibrant cities full of walkable neighborhoods with a various mix of housing choices, schools, restaurants, transit, and services. We cannot have safe multimodal infrastructure without the density to support it and we cannot have equitable density without safe multimodal infrastructure. Outside of designing safe streets, my passions are sketching ideas for infill neighborhoods, floor plans, urban photography, and exploring our cities on foot or bike. Please check out the menus above for all of my ideas and also check out my YouTube, Instagram,  BlueSky Social, and Twitter accounts.

Opinions and insights are my own and are not representative of my employer or any organization.