Architecture Here and There

The photo above shows the Providence Public Library with the originally planned addition, at right, which is not identical to but is related closely to the original 1901 building. The library board should have been prosecuted for grand theft beauty then. Today, by forcing the public to enter the building through the appalling 1951 addition actually built, that is, through the basement on Empire Street rather than through the front door ("duh!") on Washington, the board has gotten away with grand theft beauty yet again. Public trust indeed. Few of the public ever see the most elegant parts of the library, now shunted aside. The PPL leadership hoards the loveliness to itself. Sack them all, I say. The evidence for the prosecution is below.

Book 'em, Danno!

You can see the lovely roofwork through windows on the second floor. Note the book motif in the cornice. All of the beauty in these photographs is more extraordinary in real life, and there's nothing to keep the public from viewing it, and from feeling righteous scorn for the library board for hiding it in back instead of placing it out front by inviting the public through the front door. There is a photo exhibit hidden up the stairs behind the (real) front entrance (now barred), so go in through the sterile, modernist entrance on Empire and up a floor and make your way to the old front lobby, where the stairs will gracefully carry you upstairs (if you ignore a sign that says "Staff Only") to see an exhibit with the following photograph:

Note that the husky frames of the men working atop the Industrial Trust Building block the view of the Westminster end of the Providence National Bank, erected in 1929. Now, of course, it has been razed. Visible beyond is the facade of the Weybosset end, added in 1950. It is the only part of the bank that survives, held up by a steel scaffold, and its possible demolition is the subject of a recent blog post with more lovely pictures of downtown Providence. Link to it here.

Also part of the exhibit is this photo of the garden behind the PPL long ago, where you could take a book and read, or have a picnic. No longer. Today the workers at PPL have a cheesy little balcony with tables overlooking the lovely parking lot, and beyond that (once the Police HQ was demolished a couple years ago), more glorious parking!

Sigh.

 Tags  architecture grand theft Providence Public Library Providence RI

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