Group restored brownfields for its headquarters
A ceremony held last week at the headquarters overlooking the bay drew a number of dignitaries, including Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and Robert W. Varney, head of the EPA’s New England offices.
“We have, quite literally, turned a landfill into a landmark,” said Curt Spalding, executive director of Save The Bay, in a prepared statement. “The site itself represents a model for environmentally sound shoreline development that will inspire and guide (coastal) communities for generations.”
During last week’s ceremony, Carcieri joked that he would like his own office at Save The Bay’s oceanfront headquarters. “What can you say, I would like to work here,” the governor said.
The Save The Bay Center stands on a former dump that was compacted and capped with a foot of soil and a permeable liner to ready the site for reuse. The $7-million project took place from fall 2003 to spring 2005, according to the group.
“I, myself, have walked this site on several occasions, when it was a blighted site,” said EPA’s Varney during the ceremony.
He commended Save The Bay for inspiring nearby development of former industrial sites, noting the several Johnson & Wales University dormitories under construction just down the shoreline from the headquarters.
The R.I. Economic Development Corporation, earlier this year, nominated Save The Bay for the Phoenix Award, which comes with a crystal trophy shaped like a flame. A national panel of experts selected the group’s project based on its magnitude, innovative remediation techniques and impact on the community, Varney said.
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline commended Save The Bay for deciding to place its headquarters on a former brownfields site and transforming “an industrial wasteland.”
“This really became the gold standard in this city for what we can do with other properties in the city of Providence,” the mayor said.
Omay Elphick, who served as Save The Bay’s project manager for the facility, explained during an interview last week that the building site had been a dump for construction debris since the 1940s. The building sits on what had been Sunshine Island, which was linked to the Fields Point shoreline with debris from the 1940s to 1960s.
Remediation of the site posed several challenges, Elphick said.
The decomposition of organic materials on the site produces unhealthy levels of methane gas, which Save The Bay keeps from seeping into the facility with a two-pronged approach. A rubber sealant lines the foundation, under which vacuums transport the methane to a vent located away from the building, said Elphick, who now works for the group as a policy specialist.
The project included the removal of 7,000 cubic feet of debris from the 6-acre property to restore saltwater marshes, Elphick said. The facility’s vegetative roof and coastal buffer on the site absorb rainwater before it spills off the property, according to the group.
The Phoenix Awards were created in 1997 to honor individuals or organizations for restoring former industrial sites for new uses. Bristol’s Thames Street Landing, a mixed-used development built over a restored shipyard, received the award in 2003.
