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designanator

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AUGUST 8, 2008 7:11PM

Providence: Part Three

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RISD CAMPUS 5

1977 view of the RISD campus showing the future site of the Chace Center which was a faculty/student parking lot at the time.

 

CHACE CENTER1

The Chace Center under construction.

 

CHACE CENTER

The completed building as seen in context with the surrounding RISD campus buildings. (Photo courtesy of PBN/Frank Mullin)

 

For my third installment on Providence, I have focused on a new building, the Chace Center, which was built by Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) just across the street from Market House, the featured structure in my first post.

Unlike some architectural efforts seen elsewhere around the city that micmic the older existing buildings, the Chace Center makes a bold statement about the present day. The building primarily provides the college with added gallery space, a cafe and an auditorium. The center also serves as a building which presents a cultural presence to downtown which I remember was clearly missing during my years at the school.

The architect for the building is the Spanish architect Jose Rafael Monero who has had significant commissions both in the U.S. and in Spain.

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It certainly is a bold statement! While an interesting addition to the area, I wonder if it will withstand the test of time as well as the buildings that surround it?
Procopius
August 09, 2008 10:14 AM
Procopius, your question about whether the new building will stand the test of time is an excellent one and I have wondered the same thing at times. It will definitely stand as a statement about the state of architecture for public buildings as it exists at the beginning of a new century. It clearly pays homage to its neighbors with its rectangular lines. Beyond that it is a strong statement which is better than a wimpy one, given its context as a major part of the public face of the school to the surrounding city.
designanator
August 09, 2008 10:27 AM
How funny - I just went to Spain for the first time this year. Barcelona, which is achitecturally lovely. I saw th Chace building picture and thought 'huh! that looks Spanish!" ....and then read your copy about the architect.

I really enjoyed your Providence series.
Sandra Stephens
August 10, 2008 12:57 PM
Sandra, interesting to hear that the building reminded you of others in Barcelona and then you read that the architect is from Spain. I did find it ironic that with all of the architects out there that have graduated from RISD they ended up with a non-RISD architect. Perhaps they did that partly for political reasons so every graduate was excluded and no sense of favoritism was shown.

I appreciate your saying that have enjoyed the series and I wanted to say that there are more posts I'm working on in this series that are in the pipeline.

Stellaa, while I wonder how this building will appear in the future, whether it will be judged as having been too trendy or whatever, I concur with what you're saying about the same styles such as Greek Revival or Classical being used over and over again. Time marches on and we shouldn't be stuck in the past.

In the case of the building to the right of the Chace center, that was originally built as a bank and it was only years later that the school purchased it. In fact, of the few buildings that the school actually did build since the beginning of the 1960s were all contemporary in their styling.

I estimate that around 80% of the school's buildings were previously owned by another party and they cover a wide range of architectural styles from the last 200 years.
designanator
August 10, 2008 02:32 PM