The Rhode Island Convention Center Authority recently announced plans for an additional new entryway to the Providence Westin Hotel and pedestrian skybridge to Providence Place mall.
The $1.7 million renovation is intended to create a natural flow of foot traffic from Exchange Street to the hotel’s meeting facilities as well as the mall, while thinning lobby traffic for hotel guests.
The plan is the result of a controversy that arose in March 2002, when hotel officials moved to close the skybridge to public foot traffic. In a press release, James P. McCarvill, the authority’s executive director, said the “strong public reaction” prompted officials to devise a different plan.
Construction of the new entryway, which has been designed by the architectural firm of Robinson Green Beretta Corp., is slated to begin in February and be completed by August 2004.
