Westminster Street from Cathedral Square

Westminster Street from Cathedral Square

According to Woodward, Cathedral Square is the “most problematic of Providence’s open spaces.” Despite being designed by world class architects and urban planners, namely I.M. Pei and Zion & Breen, the space has been universally decried as an utter failure. Intended to be a marvelous piazza, inspired by European models, the forecourt for Providence’s most monumental and important church, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul,” the square never fulfilled its objective. Whereas European open spaces rely on activity generators (see slide 5151 for map of Providence activity generators) to work, Cathedral Square remains largely empty, except for “a lifeless collection of 800 apartments” and a few “stultifying” and rarely visited structures.” Additionally, construction of Vathedral Square and Weybosset Hill further isolated the downtown neighborhood from the west side by truncating Westminster Street.

Chester Smolski

Woodward, PPS/AlAri Guide to Providence Architecture (Providence, 2003), 292-3.

http://www.newurbannews.com/ProvCharrette.html

1974-01-01

Rhode Island College

Photograph

Photograph

5196

Providence

United States of America

Urban planning -- Rhode Island -- Providence; Urban renewal -- Providence, Rhode Island -- Designs and plans; Space (Architecture) -- Providence, Rhode Island -- Designs and plans; Cathedral Square (Providence, R.I.); City blocks -- Rhode Island -- Providence -- Designs and plans; Westminster Street (Providence, R.I.); Providence (R.I.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.

Rhode Island

Cathedral Square

Walking malls