Architectural consultant Frances Halsband described the University's vision for redevelopment of the Jewelry District to community members Monday afternoon at Brown/RISD Hillel.
The plan, crafted by the firm RM Kliment and Frances Halsband Architects, suggests a downtown urban campus in which the streets bustle with commercial activity and Alpert Medical School students can study and live without feeling isolated from the Brown community.
The relocation of I-195 — which should be completed by the end of 2012 — could aid the University's expansion into the Jewelry District and will allow for greater movement between that neighborhood and downtown Providence, Halsband said, and new Medical Education Building on Richmond Street is scheduled to open to students in the next two years.
Michael McCormick, assistant vice president of planning, design and construction, said at the presentation that the opening of the Med Ed building would increase the number of Brown-affiliated faculty and students in the Jewelry District to nearly 1,000 from fewer than 600.
RM Kliment and Frances Halsband Architects conducted interviews with members of the Brown community, Rhode Island hospital workers, representatives of the Providence Foundation and members of the Jewelry District Association in order to draft plans that reflected not only the University's priorities but also the needs of the greater community, Halsband said.
"The real challenge is to create a place that feels like a campus but, at the same time, is part of the city," Halsband said. "When you walk across the Main Green, you feel that you're on a campus, but you also feel welcome to walk across."
Currently, the Jewelry District is "not a campus — not even a part of the city that we could admire," she said.
The plans include not only the expansion of University property, but also a collaborative, total renewal of the neighborhood.
In its most ambitious form, the plan would allot nearly 250,000 square feet, including Brown-owned buildings and land the University hopes to acquire, to research facilities, office buildings and "University life" buildings, which could include a student library or study center. Space is also being considered for the construction of an "instructional conference center," an arts space and a fitness center.
In addition to the University's projects, the plans also envision new residential buildings, shops, cafes and parks that would draw on the influx of people into the district that Brown's increased presence would bring.
"The knowledge-based economy has to be there for any of this to happen," McCormick said.
One of the most drastic changes the plans call for involves the buildings on Richmond Street to be pulled back about 25 feet to widen the streets and sidewalks.
The widening of the street would facilitate the addition of a "circulatory" — or trolley — route through the district, a proposed development the University hopes the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority will undertake.
The Richmond Street sidewalks, if expanded, could feature a boulevard of trees and sidewalk cafes, Halsband said.
After her presentation, Halsband opened the discussion to questions from the approximately 30 audience members in attendance, many of whom were faculty whose office space is already located in the Jewelry District. While there were few questions after Halsband's report, one audience member who said he occupied lab space in the Jewelry District asked how the plans might address safety issues in the neighborhood.
"An environment is safer when it feels safer," McCormick said. "It has to feel like a nice place to be."
Halsband said despite the collaborative nature of many aspects of the projects for the Jewelry District, "It's not a plan that requires one thing to happen before everything else goes. There are multiple triggers, multiple ways for this to get started."
