April 24, 2016.  A crowd of more than 125 people gathered at the Warren Alpert Medical School on Richmond St. for what turned out to be a fascinating look at the District. Students in Prof. Dietrich Neumann's urban seminar presented lively, at times surprising, new – to many in the audience – details about our neighborhood.

A long-lost city park, a vanished church that, before its demise had become a brewery, another church whose pastor became embroiled in a front-page murder case were just a few items they dropped in our laps.

Each of the 16 students was assigned to study two sites in the District. In the interests of keeping the time under control, each student reported on a single building. (When, at the end of the semester, their work is finished, Prof. Neumann said information will be available on all 32 sites.

As a whole, the presentation was a trip through history, following the transition of the District as industry took over a residential area, then evolved in response to changing technology and market conditions. A few examples: the Irons & Russell Building at 95 Chestnut St. was the first factory in the District to have its own electric generating system... today's Manchester St. power station took over the Providence Gas Co.'s coal gassification site when electricity supplanted gas for illumination (last remnant of Providence Gas: Club Desire)... the Alibi Deli on Bassett St,  was orginally a single story; the original building was jacked up and today's brick first floor was built under it... where the Point St. overpass crosses I-95, gracious Hayward Park surrounded a dramatic fountain and the splendid Point St. Grammar School once stood as landmarks.

The speakers used modern technology to re-create the look of the past. Archival images of vanished buildings popped into their original locations on images of the sites as they are today. Fascinating to see a classic single steeple colonial church suddenly appear in the parcel of 195 land at the corner of Clifford and Chestnut where the I-195 overpass used to be.

Brent Runyon, Providence Preservation Society Exec. Dir. , and Peter McNally, 195 Commission Exec. DIr. both commented about the importance of understanding the past as the District moves into its future with the destruction of I-195.

Organized by Olin Thompson and Sharon Steele, the event was  sponsored by the Providence Preservation Society, Building Bridges and the Jewelry District Association and Brown University. 

The event was covered by the Providence Journal; you can read their account HERE.

                                                               (Click pictures to enlarge them.)

April 1, 2017. Providence, RI. The celebrated artist Christo has released a preliminary illustration of his grand project to hang gigantic laundry from the power lines over the Providence River. Renowned for his ground-breaking projects around the world, he chose Providence for his newest project after abandoning a years-long fight to drape translucent panels over miles of a river in Colorado.

The project bids to equal Christo's triumph with "The Gates" in New York's Central Park back in 2008. At an informal press conference on the deck at the Hot Club, Christo commented on his project, which he calls Laundry/Providence:

sheet, maybe 40 feet long, 500 thread-count  (I would like to use more tightly woven material, but one has to draw the line somewhere). A suit of what you call 'long johns', you know bright red ... maybe 25 feet tall."

"Yes, for little Rhode Island, this will be big, very big. It will provide many jobs, too.  I plan to open discussions with your Commerce Corporation soon to see about getting some of those tax credits I have heard so much about."

"I am really excited to be doing my first project in New England. You can imagine how dramatic the view will be from your new pedestrian bridge. Sort of a wash-day miracle."

No sooner had the law offices of Lynch & Greenfield debarked from 1 Ship Street than the space was taken over for a few days by tech companies and conceptual electronic and mechanical creators, builders and educators. Sunday through Tuesday March 28th, the former law offices are buzzing, humming and flashing with hot new ideas and conceptual thinking.

Monday morning kicked off first thing with a welcome from Governor Raimondo. In her remarks, she saluted the conference as another sign that the tech world and Rhode Island business are really moving ahead together to build our economy.

Following up, Commerce Corp. head Stefan Pryor described how an innovation in gold plating technology over two hundred years ago sparked growth that turned Providence into the world center for jewelry making. Two men, an idea and an industry is born.

Here's how the organizers of this 21st Century  symposium describe what they are up to:

"Rhode Island’s Manufacturer + Maker Tech is a three-day symposium on education for advanced technologies. Initially conceived by IYRS, Polaris MEP, RIC and the RI Commerce Corp, the event has grown to include additional organizations across Rhode Island interested in re-­envisioning the manufacturing marketplace, as well as the pathway to Manufacturer + Maker careers."

"Targeting Makers/Hackers, Manufacturers, Educators and the public ­at ­large, the event will provide insights in workforce preparation, equipment sharing and digital manufacturing through a variety of presentations, panel discussions and equipment demonstrations."

The editors of the JDA website are technologically challenged, so rather than try to explain any further, we offer you a link to the symposium's official website HERE.