Fox Point Success Story: Architecture Critic Will Morgan

Fox Point Success Story: Architecture Critic Will Morgan

Fox Point is one of the most intriguing areas of Providence, and one that is undergoing some remarkable changes.

Bounded on two sides by water, and cheek by jowl with the far more upscale neighborhoods of College Hill and Wayland Square, Fox Point has long been something of an aesthetic stepchild with its predominance of vinyl siding, chain link fences, and paved yards.

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When my wife and I came to Providence to explore moving here, our realtor showed us Fox Point, explaining that many of its old families were pushing back against gentrification, holding out for the day when real estate prices would soar astronomically.

To judge from all the new construction in Fox Point, it seems that day is here.

Part of Fox Point's extraordinary renaissance is the surge of restaurants and businesses on Ives Street, where Aleppo Sweets, the Tallulah’s Tacqueria, PVDonuts, a bicycle shop, and a book store have joined Bee's Thai, the Noodles 102, Captain Seaweeds, and the Peaceable Kingdom to create an active and economically viable street.

As Ives Street is showing how it is possible to rejuvenate an older neighborhood one street at a time, the blocks nearby are showing a near frenzy of domestic construction that is at once hopeful and alarming.

In a city with so many colleges and short of adequate living spaces for everyone who is attracted here, Fox Point has become a sort of student ghetto; the current push to erect ever more rental properties threatens the neighborhood's commercial gains.

The handsome older houses in Fox Point, alas, are not so much the focus of all the activity: grand Victorian ladies and modest Greek temple-front houses are not being restored as much as smaller row houses are being torn down and replaced by the lowest- end real estate on the Fox Point Monopoly board.

At 292 Wickenden Street, a 19th-century house was demolished for an out-of-scale block of rental units, although the builder did at least employ a gable roof that picks up the rhythm of its neighbors.

Nor is there a movement toward inserting sensitively designed contemporary architecture into the Fox Point townscape.

In the summer of 2007, the Boston Globe Magazine ran a cover story on a new house on Fremont Street under the rubric, "21st-Century Design Blossoms in Old New England."

In designing his own house, architect Jeff Pivorunas carefully considered the ambiance of Fox Point, addressing issues of compatibility, materials, proportions, and scale.

But the simplicity of the architect's restrained, respectful, and well-crafted home has been misinterpreted by developers who shape domestic envelopes that do little more than displace legally allowed rental space.

Typical of new residential construction in Fox Point, those houses are vanilla plain boxes that make almost no attempts to ameliorate the blandness of their shape.

Cornices, eaves, window surrounds, or any human touches have been jettisoned for the least expensive construction possible.

These "new" houses are cheap and they look it, built of flimsy materials and offering as few windows as possible.

One of America's great contributions to architecture is the balloon frame, where standardized two-by-fours replaced post-and-beam construction's tree-trunk-size framing elements.

The often-prefabricated balloon frame allows faster construction, but it too easily results in a repetitive sameness.

Even if Fox Point's early houses were not as well built as their College Hill counterparts, they should be replaced only if their replacements are an improvement.

Instead, we are building tomorrow's slums.

One note of optimism is the remodeling of a mid-19th century house on East Street by RISD professors Laura Briggs and Jonathan Knowles.

Their transitional Greek Revival/Italianate home will also be their office, so they are staking their long-term commitment to Fox Point in a less-than-lowest-common-denominator construction.

Alas, the success of Fox Point as an attractive, convenient, and livable part of Providence is threatening the very character that makes the neighborhood so appealing in the first place.

 

Architecture critic Will Morgan has taught the history of cities and is the author of Louisville: Architecture and the Urban Environment.