West End Neighborhood Project
May 2024
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Project description Project description Project description Project description Project description
Project description Project description Project description Project description Project description
Project description Project description Project description Project description Project description
Project description Project description Project description Project description Project description
Project description Project description Project description Project description Project description
The West End is a lower-income neighborhood in southwestern Providence, Rhode Island. It has a poverty rate of 28% (1.4x the Providence figure), and less than one third of adults hold a bachelor’s degree. The average household size is 2.6 people. 36% of households are headed by a married couple, while a near-equal 35% have a female head. 85% of residential structures are multi-unit, and 85% of all occupied units are rented, not owned, by residents. Nearly half of residents are Latin American immigrants, and the median age is 33.
(Data from US Census ACS 2023 5-year Estimates)
Tree canopy and air temperature are inversely correlated throughout Providence. Relative to the rest of the city, the West End ranks lower in canopy and higher in temperature. (List data sources here)
Existing conditions: Households per structure, fencing
Existing conditions: Ground surface, building footprints
The selected block features extensive paving and fencing, as well as sparse and uneven tree canopy. Heavy paving exacerbates urban heat and increases local stormwater runoff. Fencing between plots delineates clear boundaries of ownership, precluding the creation of spatial opportunities for shared responsibility between neighbors. Most structures are multi-unit residential, indicating a high percentage of renters and medium-dense population.
Phase 1: Enclosed Porches, Outdoor Living Rooms
“Good fences make good neighbors,” says the neighbor in Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.” In the context of the American single-family detached house, they also visualize the outer boundary that allows the isolation of the nucleus. Each lot looks inward onto itself.
The residential structures on the selected block all take the form of the single-family detached house, and the vast majority of them were erected between 1860 and 1925. Since then, most of their interiors have been divided into several distinct dwelling units. The illusory nuclear shell contains, in reality, a collection of hearths.
In response to these notions of multiplicity and densification, Phase 1 proposes a serious of infill structures that thicken the lateral boundary lines into habitable spaces to be shared by residents of adjacent lots. These new constructions impose minimal footprints and allow the ground beneath to remain pervious. All existing asphalt on the block is removed.
55-59 Wilson St.
Infill unit placements between adjacent properties; removal of side fencingAsphalt removal
26-40 Arch St.
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