Designer dorms open
It’s the kind of stylish digs you may have come to expect in Providence’s downtown: views of the Providence River winding out to Narragansett Bay; customized furnishings; modern appliances. But here’s the kicker: this is student housing.
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The Rhode Island School of Design has completed renovations for student apartments and lofts in the Rhode Island Hospital Trust building at 15 Westminster St. And earlier this month, the school exercised an option to purchase the landmark building from project developer Gilbane Properties Inc. for $47 million.
More than 500 students will move into the 12-story building after Labor Day, representing a portion of the RISD population that otherwise may have had to find living quarters elsewhere, school officials say. It’s also hoped that the influx of students will provide the Downcity revival with a shot in the arm.
The updated 88-year-old building blends modern design with historic charm. From a main hallway with original vaulted ceilings, students can access their rooms via elevators that require key cards for use.
“The question was how do you make dormitories not only for a school, but an arts and design school,” said Nader Tehrani, a RISD alumnus and lead architect from Boston-based firm Office dA.
The first three floors of student housing, levels three through five, consist of what RISD calls “alcove suites.” Each unit has either one or two rooms in which there are two nooks for beds – enclosed by drapes – and have shared kitchens and bathrooms. The sleeping quarters maximize space while providing students with more privacy than traditional dorm rooms, Tehrani said during an Aug. 18 tour of the building.
From the sixth to the ninth floors are three- and four-bedroom apartments. These units consist of a kitchen, two bathrooms and a common living area. The top two floors contain lofts – some without kitchens – which are geared toward graduate students who may have significant others, RISD said.
RISD faculty from its Furniture Design Department, headed by professor John Dunnigan, designed all the furnishings in the housing units. Using the department’s specifications, Adden Furniture Inc., of Lowell, Mass., manufactured the beds, tables, chairs, desks and sofas, said Brian A. Janes, RISD’s director of residence life. Janes said Adden plans to offer the furnishings to other schools under a separate product line.
Beginning the project in March 2004, Providence-based Gilbane Building Company knocked down the walls on each of the floors that now house the residential units, said Edward T. Broderick, vice president of operations at Gilbane.
Broderick noted that 15 Westminster St. and One Financial Plaza had been linked by way of access and electrical and mechanical systems, and part of the project was to close off access between the buildings and separate their utility systems.
On the ground level, Broderick said, a former café and kitchen was converted into a 110-seat cafeteria. Some of the walls still have the original wood paneling from when the bank used the space as a dining room. Most of the first floor, however, consists of RISD’s future library, which is to open for fall 2006.
“They envision students coming down (to the library) at night in their pajamas to get a book they forgot for a report,” said RISD President Roger Mandle, standing in the center of the large empty space during the tour.
Mandle said the college will open the design library – which will be called The Fleet Library to honor the bank’s donation of the space to RISD in 2002 – to the public along with the cafeteria, and the spaces would enhance the overall appeal of downtown. The library will also occupy the building’s basement, second floor and mezzanine floor located above the ground level.
Though the building’s aesthetics represent the school’s emphasis on art and design, the thrust of the project was to ameliorate RISD’s student housing shortage. Adding the 526 beds available at 15 Westminster St., RISD will be able to house about 50 percent of its 2,250 undergraduate and graduate students, up from 30 percent last school year, Janes noted.
“Because of the continued gentrification around the campus,” Janes said, “it was causing the students to go further and further afield to find housing.”
Students will pay $4,950 per school year to share an alcove suite, according to RISD, and as much as $8,580 for a studio loft on the upper two floors. Those prices are similar to the college’s apartments on Benefit Street, and in many cases less expensive than off-campus apartment rents in the area.
RISD closed on the $47-million purchase of 15 Westminster St. on Aug. 12, using proceeds from the college’s $50-million bond issue in 2004, college officials said, adding that they hope their investment will help revitalize Providence’s old downtown area.
“It will have a significant revitalization effect on the stores and businesses down there,” Janes said. “It will no longer be an 8 (a.m.) to 5 atmosphere.
