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Originally Posted by Hudson11
nice, How long has it been since Providence has seen a new highrise of this scale?
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The last big project was the Residences Providence (115 meters) and the shorter Waterplace Towers (71/64 meters) in 2007 and 2008 respectively, timed perfectly to complete just before the housing bubble burst.
In the last year or so, quite a few residential projects started up again, most of them either renovations of old mill buildings or low rise projects. This is the only major high rise project that's got some viable possibility of getting underway.
Providence has a lot of historical societies who tend to scrutinize any highrise project, plus it's always had a pretty shaky economy, so those two issues have stunted its skyline growth a bit. However, when there's periods of economic prosperity, the developers usually win out over the NIMBY's if they're truly gung ho about their intentions.
One thing I will say I like about the culture, despite the small growth aspect to it, is usually you end up with cool, unique designs that reflect the historic New England nature of the city, and it makes for a rather aesthetic skyline that avoids the "glass box" architecture a lot of other cities often have. The only boxy designs that made it past were the two office towers built in the 1970s for what is now Santander Bank and Textron.