JWU reveals $40M academic building plan for Jewelry District

A NEW $40 MILLION, 60,000-SQUARE-FOOT academic building is being planned by Johnson & Wales University at the corner of Pine and Chestnut streets in Providence's Jewelry District. Construction is expected to begin in April. / COURTESY JOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY
A NEW $40 MILLION, 60,000-SQUARE-FOOT academic building is being planned by Johnson & Wales University at the corner of Pine and Chestnut streets in Providence's Jewelry District. Construction is expected to begin in April. / COURTESY JOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – Johnson & Wales University Monday unveiled plans for a new $40 million academic building on former Interstate 195 land in Providence’s Jewelry District.

The building will sit at the corner of Friendship and Chestnut Streets and serve the university’s School of Engineering and Design and College of Arts and Sciences’ new biology program, Johnson & Wales said in a news release.

Construction is expected to begin in April 2015 and be completed by July 2016, which would almost surely make it the first building constructed on the former highway land being marketed by the state as The Link.

“One hundred years ago, Johnson & Wales established its roots in the City of Providence,” said Johnson & Wales Chancellor John J. Bowen in the release. “In recent years, we’ve led the way in transforming the city’s landscape.”

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The new 60,000-square-foot building will allow Johnson & Wales to move the School of Engineering and Design, and the Alan Shawn Feinstein Technology and Design Center from their current home at 138 Mathewson St.

It will include classrooms, offices, assembly space, an outdoor courtyard and laboratories for programs including robotics, drawing, game and network simulation, network engineering and sustainable architecture. Biology labs will support physics, chemistry, organic chemistry and microbiology.

The new facility is the latest in a series of projects to both expand and reorganize Johnson & Wales’ downtown campus.

This summer, the university completed the transformation of a jewelry manufacturing building it had acquired at 157 Clifford St. into a home for its Center for Physician Assistant Studies.

Earlier in the year, it opened a new 750-space parking garage on Richmond Street.

In 2012 Johnson & Wales purchased two parcels of I-195 land totaling 1.7 acres, which had been reserved for it in state law, for $3.9 million. The deal also required the school to reach an agreement with the city on a $500,000 increase in its annual payment in lieu of taxes.

JWU spokeswoman Lisa Pelosi said the new engineering building is part of the school’s effort to create a more unified, linear downtown campus between Weybosset Street and Pine Street.

The building’s architects are Edward Rowse Architects of Providence and Architectural Resources Cambridge of Cambridge, Mass. Construction manager is Dimeo Construction Co. of Providence; Woodard & Curren of Providence is the civil engineer on the project; Odeh Engineers of North Providence will serve as structural engineers; and landscape design is being provided by the Birchwood Design Group of Providence.

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