Tower Swindle: Phase One—Architectural Critic Will Morgan
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Has Providence has been swindled in a multi-million-dollar Three Card Monte? There's little worse than realizing you've been scammed, and yet here is a city that is apparently lying down, willing to be raped. The developer, promising to "jump start growth," is calling this violation Phase One.
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In an earlier piece warning our fair city about the wrong-headedness of building the Hope Point Towers, this writer suggested that allowing a certain New York developer to come to town was like allowing your fifteen-year-old daughter to go out with Jack the Ripper. Turns out, Jason Fane is more like the wolf that ate Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother. (Did the 38 Studios debacle teach us nothing?)
Was the Triple Tower Threat just a cynical feint, a trial balloon? Citizens that care about the city recognized the Miami Beach look-alikes as the Trojan horse of mediocrity, and were justifiably horrified. Now, with Fane's "re-thought" yet thoughtless proposal, that misguided city-wrecking scheme somehow feels less painful. 43 stories instead of 55 is analogous to feeling grateful when the surgeon tells you that, instead of your leg, he is only going to amputate your foot.
There are two main issues that the so-called city planners and money-desperate politicians seem unable to grasp. One is about the design of the planned tower. More important is forgetting about what makes a good city, what makes it work, and what are the special resources that already have made Providence unique.
Why are we unable to acknowledge that Providence already has the elements of greatness and supreme livability? Do we need to constantly remind ourselves of the abundant colleges and universities here, of the ethnic diversity, of the variety of neighborhoods, the physical manifestation of a glorious history in our downtown, the not-be-equaled anywhere charm of College Hill, the rediscovered river? There is no denying there are tough issues to be tackled. But the solution is building upon what we have, not giving over the most precious piece of open downtown land to out-moded schlock development.
It is pointless to be diverted by what the building might look like. Real estate is not architecture, and, whether one tower or three, this project is nothing but square footage wrapped in a slick but bland container. Nothing about Fane's tower designs makes the blood race, nothing says anything about the soul of Rogers Williams' Divine Providence; there's nothing inspirational or aspirational. If you believe, as Professors St. Florian and Neumann claim, that, "the red brick façade of the building was designed to coexist in harmony with Providence's past, while the soaring glass tower represents its future," then I have a bridge to sell you.
Hiring a really good, brilliant, sensitive, famous architect chosen by God could make a difference. Some more knowledgeable minds than mine have argued that what Hope Point Towers needs is a better design (this has, unfortunately, been picked up and mindlessly echoed by those who favor any outside investment over local imagination). But the problem with that position is that a skyscraper is simply not the solution for this site.
Washington architect Paul Spreiregen, one of the country's most respected urban design critics, wrote this after seeing the three towers proposal:
"It reminds me of an experience I had some years ago visiting either Oklahoma City or Tulsa. I can’t remember which. In the center of a town a very large high rise tower, sitting on a raised podium, had been erected. It was meant, I am sure, to revitalize the downtown. Instead it did the opposite, leaving the downtown dry. Everything had gone into the new tower. What had been a downtown in which everyone walked around became a downtown of empty streets. The faults were manifold–the worship of high rise buildings as a symbol of progress, developer money objectives, city need for taxes, etc. But little thought goes to how the fabric and social life of the town is affected."
Déjà vu, all over again. Why do we have to keep reinventing the city-planning handbook? In our rush to scoop up the promised money from the sort of outfit that has besmirched many a downtown, we are likely to get fleeced, all over again. (Fane's assertion that this third-rate hack job is "in that vein of signature architecture in the city" would be laughable were it not so uninformed.) Even if there were not so many more ways to turn the heart of I-195 open land into something truly wonderful, we need to step back and consider more options than selling out.
And it demonstrates that people like to close to the ground.
It behooves the city to take a longer view. Providence is a real, truly exceptional place–not perfect, but deserving a higher level of courtship. We need to stop acting like a wallflower willing to dance with a creep. And let's keep in mind that the riverfront is not a place apart from the rest of the city. It belongs to all of us, so let's not screw it up–and let's consider options that offer more than short-term gain for "them" and long term loss for us.
William Morgan has written about architecture and design for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Boston Globe. He is the author of Louisville: Architecture and the Urban Environment.
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