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Civic and Community Engagement

Smolski Texts

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Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Architecture

Designing The Cityscape, Chester Smolski Nov 1982

Designing The Cityscape, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"A new structure has recently been erected in the Providence downtown, and criticisms of the building's design continue to fly. An editorial in these newspapers, for example, referred to the 'failed example of quickie construction with a outsized Erector set.'"


Accepting The Townhouse Idea Requires New Attitudes, Chester Smolski Sep 1981

Accepting The Townhouse Idea Requires New Attitudes, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"To change actions is easy; to change attitudes is more difficult. This is a truism that one finds whether one deals with race relations, sexual equality or ethnic stereotypes. It is also true in housing."


Farewell To The Bucklin Bldg., Chester Smolski Aug 1979

Farewell To The Bucklin Bldg., Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"How does one write an obituary for a building? Does one concentrate on its architecture and long history, or does one single out the actors and forces which killed it? The current razing of the Bucklin Building can only bring sadness to the heart and the need to express, in a few, final words, a tribute to a fine and familiar structure."


Momentous Decision: Capital Center Project, Chester Smolski Jun 1979

Momentous Decision: Capital Center Project, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It may very well be the most important decision facing Providence in this century; it would provide new commercial space approximately one and one-half times that found in the present downtown; it would remove black and ugly 'dead' space (parking) from the foot of the state Capitol and replace it with acres of greenery and enhanced riverfront; it would provide better access into the downtown and facilitate the east-west flow of traffic; it would drastically alter the focus of the downtown; and it would greatly increase the tax base of the capital city. The Capital Center Project, with its proposed …


Downtown Buildings That Link Us To Our Past, Chester Smolski Jun 1979

Downtown Buildings That Link Us To Our Past, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It is sickening and it is sad. A building that has withstood the ravages of time throughout its 103 years of life deserves a better fate; yet there it stands, disembowled and broken by the wrecking ball. The Hoppin Homestead Building on the Westminster Mall will soon be only a memory, and its site will be marked by that ubiquitous asphalt reminder of our automobile addicted age--the parking lot. Is this the cure for old buildings in a downtown that is moving on the road to regeneration?"


Better Year Ahead For Ri Builders, Chester Smolski May 1978

Better Year Ahead For Ri Builders, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Building permit figures recently released by the Rhode Island Builders Association indicate that housing construction in the first quarter of 1978 is well ahead of the comparable period for 1977. The signs are encouraging that this year will be better than the last and that the recovery continues from 1975, the poorest year for the housing industry in the 1970s."


Superlative Atlanta, Chester Smolski Feb 1978

Superlative Atlanta, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"With the passing of each year a new superlative is added: the third largest convention city; the third city in the post-war period to construct a rapid transit system; the second busiest airport in the world; the safest mass transportation system in the country; and with direct flights to London in the offing, this major commercial, industrial and financial center of the Southeast can truly claim to be a New International City. Atlanta is all of these."


New Spirit In Old Savannah - A City With Plans, Chester Smolski Feb 1978

New Spirit In Old Savannah - A City With Plans, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"A large downtown is normally characterized by tall buildings because demand in this most accessible location is strong, with intensive use of the land being the result. Approaching a city, as one looks off in the distance at the cityscape, one is able to quickly locate the central business district as, for example, one drives south on Route 146 toward Providence. Such is not the case in this serene and lovely, port city of Georgia."


Soul City Deserves To Succeed, Chester Smolski Jan 1978

Soul City Deserves To Succeed, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream--a dream of equal opportunity and justice for all. An assassin's bullet prevented him from realizing his dream. His friend and well-known leader in the civil rights movement also had a dream--a dream to build a new town in which the injustices of society would be lessened. Today, in the rolling farmland country of North Carolina, Floyd McKissick is working to fulfill his long sought dream."


Parallel For Providence To Consider, Chester Smolski Jan 1978

Parallel For Providence To Consider, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"They have done it here. The Grand Opera House has nearly been restored and it is now the Deleware State Performing Arts Center. A lively activity center located on the recently opened, pedestrianized Market Street Mall, the Grand is serving as a major focal point in bringing life back to downtown Wilmington."


Impressions Of Providence, Chester Smolski Oct 1977

Impressions Of Providence, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"A recent Letter to the Editor of this newspaper pointed out part of the problem of our capital city. Whether one agrees with the writer or not, it is important to consider what he said because this is the image of the city which he carried away with him."


Providence Needs More Than Parking Space, Chester Smolski Mar 1977

Providence Needs More Than Parking Space, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The automobile has made us highly mobile. Today we think nothing of driving 30, 40 or 50 miles to do different kinds of shopping. The success of suburban malls attests to this fact: with good access from interstate and highways, these asphalt oases have sprung up like mushrooms throughout our suburban areas. And with few exceptions, they have successfully fulfilled the single function for which they were intended--retailing.


Time To Appoint A City Artist, Chester Smolski Feb 1975

Time To Appoint A City Artist, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"During the past several weeks, while Providence's new mayor has been sorting out priorities and charting new directions for the first new administration in a decade, a plethora of suggestions has been advanced for ways to make Providence a better place in which to live."


Let Citizens Shape The City, Chester Smolski Nov 1974

Let Citizens Shape The City, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"On November 22 in the Bishop McVinney Auditorium, approximately 225 residents of Providences assembled to suggest the means by which this city could become a better place in which to live."