Client: The City of Providence and Rhode Island LISC on behalf of Trinity Square Historic District
Client Need: To develop and implement physical and programatic strategies for the Trinity Square Historic District to boost cultural life and address public safety concerns. The strategies must be developed through a cross-sector community engagement process inclusive of neighborhood social service providers and the Providence Police Department in order to forge stronger relationships to catalyze change and sustain cultural equity.
Goal: To reconnect neighborhood life to the district through asserting pedestrian priority zones and making cultural activities visible in public space. Each programatic addition will we designed for specific local cultural groups' outreach needs.
In collaboration with RISD Urban Initiatives Team. Images and photos below are sourced from the entire team.
This map shows pervasive J walking across main intersection.
Vivid street life in the streets off the Historic District take advantage of of the street as public space.
Multi-block panoramas reveal uneven night lighting on side walks around the square and pedestrian paths through the cemetery as entirely unlit.
We worked with police to ensure our design changes made their jobs easier by discouraging crime and allowing easy emergency vehicle access.
Features
Proposal Final Community Presentation & Full Scale Mock Up
I frequently became the spokes person for the project.
We demarcated places for paths and landscaping across the entire 10 acre site. Then we took the presentation attendees on a tour.
In the locations corresponding to new programatic additions, the future life was acted out. Here the audience listens to story telling by Rhode Island Black Storytellers.
Results
We constructed 12,000 sf of outdoor performance venue and urban lawn in Trinity Square. It is the first outdoor performance space in the neighborhood and will act as a pilot for the rest of the urban plan.
