PROVIDENCE – Mayor David N. Cicilline Wednesday announced the winner of the city’s Waterfront Park Design Competition: the award-winning landscape architectural firm of Brown, Richardson & Rowe Inc., whose “Fish Playground” design was selected by the 11-member Waterfront Design Selection Committee.
Until Wednesday, the city had not revealed the identities of any of the 16 teams that submitted designs for the contest.
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“Our team is honored to have been selected by the City of Providence,” said Brown, Richardson & Rowe founder Nina Brown. “We entered this competition because we were inspired by the potential of the proposed waterfront park system to contribute in a dramatic way to the wonderful city ….
“Parades down Dorrance Street though the park to the river’s edge and the Ember Summer House, green lawns, a small hill, views up and down the river, the ‘WaterFire,’ a one-of-a-kind playground and a sculpture garden will encourage people of all ages to use the parks throughout the day and in different seasons of the year. Providence is a creative city. These parks can celebrate this creativity.”
Key elements of the winning design include: the Ember House, a transparent, free-standing structure along the riverwalk – inspired by “WaterFire Providence” – that could be used as a café or gathering space; a sculpture garden; a terraced amphitheatre; a centrally located granite disk that reflects the history of the Providence River; and the Fish Playground, with artist-designed play equipment including wave slides, turtles, fish and shells found in the Providence River.
The two parks will be constructed by the R.I. Department of Transportation on 8 acres of land – 6 acres on the west bank of the Providence River, and 2 acres on the east bank. A proposed pedestrian bridge would connect the two parks.
Brown, Richardson & Rowe is a Boston-based landscape architectural firm specializing in creating and renovating public and private outdoor spaces. The agency’s park designs have won numerous awards over the years, including the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s 2004 Preservation Award for the restoration of Nathan Tufts Park in Somerville; the Massachusetts Recreation and Park Association’s Outstanding Design Facility in 2001, for Boston’s Millennium Park; and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects’ Honor Award in 2000, for Spectacle Island in the Boston Harbor.
“I want to thank all of the design teams for enthusiastically responding to the call to take part in this unprecedented design competition,” Cicilline said. “The Design Selection Committee did an excellent job carefully reviewing all of the proposals and listening to the public’s input on what they’d like to see in their new parks. We have emerged with an incredible design that will be a defining feature on our waterfront for generations to come.”
Cicilline noted that the winning design was one of 16 proposals submitted as part of an unprecedented public process that included a public presentation of the finalists’ designs, a video presentation on the city’s Web site and more than 150 written comments from the public, which the Design Selection Committee took into consideration in its deliberations.
The committee, appointed by the mayor, included Jill Jaffee, Merrill Sherman, Howard Ben Tre, Jenny Pereira, Ana Cano-Morales, Keith A. Oliveira, Frank LaTorre, Arria Bilodeau, Barbara Petrarca, Arthur Salisbury and Mary Ellen Flanagan.
“It was truly a challenging task for the Committee to select the winning design among two great finalists in this competition,” Pereira said. “We focused on understanding the proposals and discussed how they would work on our waterfront and for our city. The design submitted by Brown, Richardson & Rowe does an excellent job connecting people to the water and creating a green oasis in the heart of Providence.”
The winning plan will be submitted to the DOT for construction as part of the ongoing Interstate 195 relocation project. The city Parks Department will work closely with DOT and the public throughout the development and construction process, according to Parks Superintendent Alix Ogden.
The park is scheduled to be completed in 2012. For further information, visit www.providenceri.com/government/waterfront/.
