Transforming Kennedy Plaza: A Vision

PROVIDENCE -- A vision is emerging to turn Kennedy Plaza into a square inspired by New York City's Bryant Park and piazzas in Florence, Italy, and reduce bus traffic.

The restructuring calls for connecting Kennedy Plaza to the Bank of America skating rink and nearby parks to create a vast open space for multiple uses.

Attractions might include a café, open market, water garden, red brick and pedestrian-safe crossings, bicycle rental station, bocce, chess tables and carousel. Spots for reading, art, music, dancing, parties, weddings, food trucks and a movie night are also in the sketches.

To make it happen, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority plans to change where it picks up passengers. Six bus stops will be eliminated, and the remaining 10 will be moved from the center of Kennedy Plaza to the perimeter -- Washington Street, bordering Burnside Park, and along Fulton Street.

Moving the bus stops from the plaza's center will allow the city to eliminate nearly all of the current bus-only lanes.

"We relocated the river, the train tracks, the highway," said Cliff Wood, executive director of the Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy, an arm of the Providence Foundation. "This is the next step. This is our generation's big revitalization."

The plans evolved from talks more than six years ago, when city officials convened several public and private groups to discuss what to do about crime in the area.

The conservancy is now taking the lead on the multi-phase project, but is partnering with numerous federal, state and city agencies, including RIPTA, and non-profits, private universities, artistic groups and businesses.

Plans will officially be revealed Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Providence Biltmore Ballroom. Governor Chafee and Mayor Angel Taveras are hosting the event. Honorary chairmen are U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and U.S. Representatives David Cicilline and James Langevin.

Wood says the entire project could cost $20 million and take, depending on how quickly they raise the money, four years to complete.

Taveras and the city are contributing $1.7 million to "start the transformation" between Fulton Street and Exchange Terrace. That money is what remains of a federal grant that Providence received for its downtown circulator project -- which, among other changes, turned frequently used one-way streets into two-way travel.

The start-up cash from the city -- and additional money that may be announced Thursday -- will be used to: remove and relocate the bus stops; eliminate the bus-only lanes; level and resurface the plaza; and begin the "Civic Plaza" section between the RIPTA station and City Hall. Those renovations may be completed by the summer of 2014.

Wood says the Civic Plaza "should be the front porch of City Hall" and a perfect location for a café and public ceremonies similar to when then-Sen. John F. Kennedy delivered a speech there in November 1960. The plaza was renamed in 1963 to honor the slain president.

"This was a thing, a place," Wood said. "This was real. We had a functioning city green like other major cities, and some minor. There are already the bones for it here, culturally and physically."

The planned projects thus far are in conjunction with RIPTA's "Comprehensive Operational Analysis," a major reorganization of its bus system.

The analysis, expected to be finished after public hearings later this year, "is looking at how we operate downtown," said Amy Pettine, the agency's director of planning and marketing.

She says scheduling improvements and route changes will allow for more efficient use of the plaza and free up space for other purposes.

"It will be a better experience for riders and a better environment," said Pettine about the plans.

Other amenities will be added as partners invest in features they like, said Wood. He and the mayor said the plans are fluid, meaning they could be changed if a better idea comes forward.

Initial designs, completed by Union Studio Architecture and Community Design, of Providence, were paid for with some of the city's National Endowment for the Arts' $200,000 "Our Town" grant received last year.

Money from the grant was also used, Wood said, to show the potential for the plaza. It paid for additions in Burnside Park such as a storytelling fence and partial replica of the ship whose crew was responsible for the eventual burning of the Gaspee.

"We've done a lot on a shoestring with just hard work, partnership," Wood said.

As an example, Wood said, there was little activity previously in Burnside Park. It now regularly has children's story hours and other events, such as the Summer Solstice series -- one of which showcased Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements as guest disc jockey DJ Five-Oh.

"We showed people what this can be," Taveras said, holding a map of Bryant Park. "This is our city square. We should make it shine."