PROVIDENCE – The Providence Preservation society is calling on Brown University to halt a project that would demolish four Brook Street houses to make space for a new economics building.
The planned demolition and construction would not only destroy historic resources, the nonprofit organization said, but it would also create environmental costs.
The National Register of Historic Places lists the historic homes, which the Providence Preservation Society identifies as 277, 281-283, 287, and 291 Brook St., as architecturally significant buildings that contribute to the College Hill Historic District designation. The houses were built in the 1870s and 1880s.
The former homes were also built for historically significant individuals, Providence Preservation Society Executive Director Marisa Angell Brown wrote in a statement. Two houses were built for Alexander Gorham, a Black philanthropist and real estate developer, while the other two were built for Frederic Fuller, founder of Fuller Iron Works at the Fox Point Foundry and a steel frame and glass machine store on South Main Street.
In the statement, Angell Brown outlined three recommendations directed at the university, including a call to "adapt and add onto the existing buildings for this new department to retain a connection to the site’s history, protect the residential look and feel of the neighborhood, and diminish the environmental costs of demolition and new construction."
Adaptive reuse would not only preserve historic resources but mitigate carbon emissions and provide potential cost savings, Angell Brown wrote.
A spokesperson for Brown University did not immediately return a request for comment.
Last week, university architect Craig Barton said that Brown has considered numerous uses for the site over the years, including adaptive reuse of the houses. But the buildings' size and internal dimensions make them “poor candidates for a modern academic program,” Barton said.
“But part of the work the design team will undertake is to thoroughly explore all options for this site,” Barton said.
University officials said that the property features ideal conditions for an economics building, and that the department is currently scattered across campus without a central core.
Brown has said it will hold community meetings as the project progresses, but Angell Brown said that the university declined the Providence Preservation Society's request to view the request for proposals and refused to answer questions on whether it is directing vendors to explore adaptive reuse opportunities.
In a second recommendation, Angell Brown wrote that Brown must commit to transparency measures such as publicly releasing RFPs.
"Inviting public input after an RFP has been drafted and shared with vendors or after the University has selected a firm based on its vision for the site is not a meaningful public engagement process," Angell Brown wrote.
The university-owned parcels are located in an I-2 Educational Institutional zone. Due to this designation, Brown officials anticipate that they will not need additional municipal approvals to move forward with the project.
However, the university must secure an amendment to its own Institutional Master Plan and expects to submit a revision to the Providence City Plan Commission later this year.
The Providence Preservation Society also recommends that the university compile an official reparative report to assess community impacts resulting from its clearance of historic resources for redevelopment purposes.
Neighbors and Ward 1 Providence City Councilor John Goncalves have also taken a stand against the development, with Goncalves describing abutters' concerns about Brown’s “institutional creep” into surrounding neighborhoods. The Providence Preservation Society estimates that the university has razed more than 150 historic buildings since 1945.
"Other universities and institutions in Providence and throughout the country have similarly complex histories of expansion, displacement and harm – including PPS, which we have documented and continue to report on," Angell Brown wrote. "It is time for Brown to do the same."
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
