Kennedy Plaza, Burnside Park

Kennedy Plaza, Burnside Park

The area that comprises Kennedy Plaza and Exchange Terrace has been so constantly reworked that hardly ten years passes without its appearance being significantly altered. According to Woodward, tracking all these alterations in order to “fully [interpret] its history would fill a book that could be a landmark in understanding American urbanism” (Woodward, 97). First created as Exchange Place outside of the train station in 1848, the site’s present spatial arrangement dates to 1898. In the late 1970s funding became available to create auto-free urban zones, and so Kennedy Plaza (renamed in 1964 after the president) became “virtually a large al fresco bus station.” (Woodward, 98). Clarke and Howe’s granite and steel Beaux-Arts Federal Building (1904-8) sits as “fitting pendant” at the opposite end of the mall from the City Hall (Jordy, 37). It is described by the competition jury, which included James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the Treasury, as “artistic” and “an ornament to the city.” Construction required the relocation of railroad tracks and the bridging of the Providence River.

Chester Smolski

Jordy, Buildings of Rhode Island (Oxford, 2004)

Woodward, PPS/AlAri Guide to Providence Architecture (Providence, 2003), 97-98.

1994-01-01

Rhode Island College

Photograph

Photograph

5157

Providence

United States of America

Kennedy Plaza (Providence, R.I.); Urban parks -- Rhode Island -- Providence; Urban transportation - Rhode Island -- Providence; Burnside Park (Providence, R.I.); Federal Building -- Rhode Island -- Providence -- 1908

Chet Smolski, “Kennedy Plaza, Burnside Park,” Rhode Island College Special Collections, accessed November 2, 2015, http://ricdigitalcommons.com/SpecialCollections/admin/items/show/2074.

Rhode Island

Kennedy Plaza

Urban Plaza