Rau Fastener

Mill Complex

Providence, Rhode Island

Introduction

Summer 2003 The Developer The Architect Reviving a Brownfield Tour the Site

Fall 2004 The Developer The Architect Tour the Site

Summer 2006 The Developer Tour the Site

The Numbers

The Architect

Douglas Brown is a principal at Durkee Brown Viveiros Werenfels Architects and the lead architect for the Rau project.

View of the two historic Rau mill buildings to be transformed into housing in phase one of the Rau redevelopment plan.

The first phase of the Rau project involves conversion of the two historic brick mill buildings into 69 units of mixed-income housing. Of the 69 units, 22 apartments will be low-income units.

The design issues are tricky. In phase one, you have clear limitations based on the general configuration and structure of the buildings. These historic buildings are typical mill buildings in that they're quite long and narrow, with windows on both sides. Most manufacturing buildings were designed to let as much natural lighting into the workspace as possible.

The challenge for us is the issue of circulation. We have to comply with all of the obvious code issues regarding egress. This leaves us with two options. One is to create a corridor down the length of the building from which residents would access the units. Stairs would be located at each end of the corridor.

This is the obvious choice and what we decided to do. The strategy was to create a central corridor so that as many windows as possible could be included within each unit. This results in linear-type apartments, each with quite a few windows.

We were also concerned with energy efficiency, control, and cost monitoring. We're going to have a high-efficiency system that heats hot water to create both the hot water and the heat for the unit.

We hope to start construction for phase one in the early fall of 2003. The demolition portions of the project (two attached buildings built at a much earlier date) would be conducted before that. Late 2004 or early 2005 would be the anticipated completion date.

The second phase is the one most connected to this one. It calls for the development of the two-story commercial building adjacent to the first two buildings. The plan is to convert this to a day-care center on the first floor (operated by the John Hope Settlement House). We've done some test fits for this already and are very pleased with the plan. It also involves the demolition of a portion of the building to create the necessary outdoor spaces for the day-care center as well.

That building is also an historic building. It's actually a really wonderful building, but it has been obscured under metal siding. It's actually one of the few remaining clapboarded mill buildings. I think most of the historic folks that have seen it are pretty excited by it. From the interior, you can see that the fenestration on the building is really quite substantial. I think that people are going to be amazed to see the transformation of the building.

So we're in the earlier stages of really developing that pro forma. It's a little difficult doing the cost estimating. Just like for general contractors, it's almost impossible for us to do our work without a certain amount of discovery and peeling away of layers to figure out what has to be done to the remaining shell.

So we're fairly early in the game there. Plus the portion of that building that we want to demolish is a much less clear set of additions. I think that there's going to be a little more debate with the historical folks about what is going to be acceptable to demolish there. From our perspective, the day care needs a certain amount of space, and we're hopeful that can be worked out.

Douglas Brown pulls aside siding that conceals the original clapbboard exterior of a building to be transformed into a day-care center and commercial space in phase two of the Rau development.

The West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation will probably move to space on the second floor. The remainder of the second floor would be available to a commercial tenant, perhaps a tech or design firm. It's really wonderful space with parking, so we're optimistic that it can be marketed.

We have a number of scattered sites that will be developed in what we'll call the third phase. Some of the land was part of the original Rau complex. These sites are scattered around the neighborhood among the existing residential lots. The idea is to establish owner-occupied, affordable houses on the lots. Work on these houses will take place throughout all of the other phases of the project.

The final phase is the development of a site immediately adjacent to the two phase-one buildings. It's the site of a former mill building that burned eight to 10 years ago. The proposal is to construct 20 attached (market-rate) townhouses there. There would be townhouses fronting the two long streets of the block with an alley between them to serve as individual driveways. On the alley side, there would also be a small, private fenced yard for each of the houses. The remainder of that site would be developed as a small pocket park, a common amenity to both the townhouses and the Rau complex. The green space is incredibly important.

There are a number of projects similar to this one currently going on in Providence. Our firm is involved in several involving adaptive reuse of old buildings. Providence has recently attracted very successful developers from other parts of the country because of our wonderful stock of non-utilized industrialized buildings.

If you've been in a building like this that has been restored and reused as residential or office space (our own office is in one of these converted buildings), you'll find that they just make wonderful space. Everyone reacts positively to them. But if left unused, they're often blights to their environment and magnets for all kinds of unsavory activity.

Interior of a building to be developed into housing in phase one of the Rau initiative.

The Rau project is a critical part of what is happening in Providence. There has been a huge focus on downtown Providence, but I think the neighborhoods have been less fortunate in receiving this kind of attention. I think it's critical to make these investments in neighborhoods that are struggling.

The Rau project is groundbreaking. It's the first (at least that I can think of) truly mixed-income, mixed-use project in the city. We're trying to create jobs; we're trying to provide housing opportunities; we're trying to make a better environment by adding green space. It all comes down to creating opportunities for the people who live in the city, creating a place where people can afford to live and want to live while contributing to the vibrancy of the city.