PROVIDENCE – Brown University has revised its design for two new residence halls, its first in almost 30 years, reducing the height of the buildings from five stories to three stories as they approach a street populated with single-family homes.
The new design also incorporates more green space facing Power Street, in front of the buildings.
The residence halls will accommodate 350 undergraduate students, a reduction of 50 from the original plan, according to Russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy at Brown University.
The university wants to house more of its undergraduates on campus and reduce student housing impacts on the East Side neighborhoods, he said. “We are committed to increasing the amount of student residence halls on campus, to be able to house 80% of our undergraduates on campus.”
A new health and wellness center, which will open in August closer to Thayer Street, will have 160 student beds.
The new buildings would be located in the Brook Street area of Fox Point, and adjacent to the university’s Vartan Gregorian Quad residential buildings. It is designed by New York-based Deborah Berke Partners.
The university has already received city planning permission to construct the residence halls. But the design was revised after people in the community pushed back against the scale of the proposed structures. In addition, many people in the neighborhood have criticized the university’s plan to tear down three multi-tenant houses to make room for the new buildings.
Brown had offered to sell the houses for $10 each, if the buyer would move them to a new location. No buyers materialized.
The revised design, presented in a webinar for community members on Monday, would feature a brick exterior with wood and glass accents.
The loss of occupancy is a “significant loss” for the university, he said, but it understands the desire to make the buildings smaller. The project will not feature any retail space at ground-level. Carey said: “We’re not in the commercial retail business. While we do run some commercial space, … that’s not the purpose of the university.”
Community members who responded, either through questions or by speaking after being unmuted, were generally critical.
Area resident Arria Bilodeau said she was disappointed in the design. “The shapes of the proposed dorms are so unreflective of their surroundings. … I’m sorry to see this design adopted,” she said.
Another woman, Liz Moran, questioned how the university could describe itself as being committed to the goals of historical preservation, given its pattern of tearing down structures.
Carey cited the South Street Landing historical renovation, a project that he said would not have happened had the university not participated.
Dimeo Construction Co. has been selected by Brown University as the construction manager. Construction is expected to begin in September or October, with the demolition of the three houses. Completion is expected by September 2023.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
Architecture wise, our society has regressed. This is revised? Is this the best they could do? What an imposition to the people of Providence! Architecture quality sure is a lost art. These foreigners to our city are going to knock down two beautifully decorated historic homes for two big boxes with rectangular windows; oversimplified, without a well thought of design, just the usual standardized banal architecture the designers seem not to be able to ascend from. Of course, this is not for the benefit of the more permanent residents of our city, but for temporary residents who are, despite being young, cannot walk a few extra blocks from the barren land south of Wickenden Street where development could take place without again knocking down historic buildings, ad infinitum. We have to make sure that they lead sheltered, cozy lives during their stay.
I hope our vanguard, those city officials who decide whether to approve or reject this (I don’t know what to call it), don’t just roll over and succumb to the desires and opinions of these behemoths with the bucks and power. Power should be to the people; that’s what democracy is about, but I’m afraid plutocracy shall prevail past our goaltenders.