Planning Projects - Cathedral Square

Overview

Cathedral Square in downtown Providence is a classic example of an earlier generation of planning ideas; a large-scale urban renewal project incorporating public housing and replacing the older street grid with a system of now underutilized pedestrian walkways, a plaza and a disjointed street system.

Once a beautiful and significant public space located at the point where Westminster and Weybosset Streets converged, the original Cathedral Square served both as a proper setting for the cathedral and as a dramatic point of arrival from the west side neighborhoods. This now abandoned stretch of Westminster Street collected incoming vehicular and pedestrian traffic from neighborhoods farther to the west and south, due to the convergence of Westminster and Cranston Streets. The existing condition disrupts the continuity of the traditional street network in a way that underscores the isolation of Downcity from the west side neighborhoods and vice versa.

In addition, although physically connecting Downcity with the west side neighborhoods, the I-95 Westminster St. bridge is a psychological obstacle to active pedestrian connection between the neighborhoods. The experience of walking across the bridges is daunting. The presence of I-95 also causes negative visual and noise effects on the neighborhoods. The continued resurgence of the west side neighborhoods underscores the need for improved connections to Downcity.

Finally, there are large amounts of underutilized land, in the form of plazas and surface parking lots that could be the basis for more intense, high-density use primarily for housing.

To address these issues, the Providence Foundation, in partnership with the City of Providence, was awarded a planning challenge grant to study the feasibility of redesigning, Cathedral Square, Westminster Street and the Interstate 95 overpass.