The Edsel of Urban Design — Architecture Critic Will Morgan

The Edsel of Urban Design — Architecture Critic Will Morgan

The ill-conceived, non-aspirational Parcel 2 project in the 195 Commission’s bailiwick will apparently go ahead. Even so, we can express regret at the limited vision behind this and voice our concern about its deleterious effect in the future. (If the Urbanica solution is the answer, what was the question?) Providence deserved a responsible, innovative, and dignified treatment of this key piece of land at the junction of College Hill and the river. Instead, we are being given the urban design equivalent of the Edsel.

 

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Built by the Ford Motor Company from 1958 to 1960, and marketed as the car of the future, the Edsel was a spectacular flop, it epitomized the arrogance of the bloated American automotive industry in the era of tail fins and championed excess. The Edsel had the largest engine Ford ever made, gear selections were made by pushing buttons placed in the center of the steering wheel, and there was enough chrome to deplete a Rhodesian mine. But what most people remember was the Edsel’s vertical grille that called to mind a certain part of the female anatomy.

The hubris of Ford and its Detroit brethren at that time is not unlike that of the 195 Commission’s approach to reshaping a significant chunk of Providence. A small group of people (chosen for their connections rather than their expertise), certain legislators, and the trade unions took the blank-slate promise of an innovation district and turned it into an absolutely banal commercial venture that could be anywhere. Instead of a luxurious limousine, a sleek race car, or even a practical Volkswagen Beetle, we have been given an Edsel.

 

 

There are enough uninspiring buildings springing up like opportunistic mushrooms after a rain on the reclaimed 195 land. But if you want a look at the future of the type of “architecture” we are underwriting, take a look at the construction of Parcel 6. Sort of like the exploding Ford Pinto or the unsafe-at-any-speed Chevrolet Corvair, we neither wanted or needed these clunkers. If Parcel 6 were a car, would it be one we’d trade-in in a few years? Would it be subject to recall or repossession?

Remind me again, other than providing work for builders, why the development of Parcel 6 will contribute to the quality of life in Providence. A Trader Joe’s (while hardly the pinnacle of culinary retail) might be an addition to the neighborhood, but do we need expensive apartment blocks penned by the unadventurous ZDS studio? Never mind that green space is at a premium in Providence, should we willingly embrace more vehicular congestion and pollution?

 

 

But if you want to get a horrifying preview of buyer’s remorse, take a look at what has recently happened to the historic city of Quincy. This Boston suburb was known for the two John Adamses, its shipbuilding, and quarries, along with one of the handsomest town libraries in America, designed by the great Henry Hobson Richardson. But its proximity to Boston and its location on the Red Line has opened it to development with all the panache of public housing in Russia.

 

 

Downtown Quincy has experienced a building boom of over-scaled apartment behemoths that contribute a dystopian landscape. While Quincy’s flats make our new buildings appear modest by comparison, it is chilling to read on the Providence Innovation & Design District website that 195 Commission chairman, Robert Davis, is touted for his work with the developer chosen to “redevelop 50 prime acres of prime real estate within the City of Quincy.”

If Quincy is the paradigm Providence wants to emulate, then we really deserve to drive a lemon like the Edsel. Our urban model need not be San Francisco, London, or Buenos Aires, for ours is still a human-scaled, walkable town. So let us at least try to save what remains of the uniqueness of Providence, without offering the offensive sameness of the current and planned 195 clunkers.

Essence of good town planning: human scale, attractive surroundings, an absence of cars.