Jewelry District
Old Harbor Forum Plans for the Jewelry District
Greenways
The Old Harbor Forums envisions a greenway from Fox Point to Old Harbor that includes bike and pedestrian paths. This would connect the Jewelry District with India Point. They also recommend more greenery and shade for pedestrians on these paths.
Streetscape/Transport
Proposed is a downcity shuttle loop transit or trolley plan further connecting the
Jewelry District with other Providence neighborhoods. They also want ground level parking reduced and encourage the Jewelry District to be more of a car free zone with satellite parking outside of the city center. They recommend the development of smaller street blocks to encourage more walkability in the city. For local water use, they encourage plans to capture more water runoff to be utilized by local businesses and people through increased permeable paving of parking lots and streets.
Buildings
Old Harbor Forums recommend that buildings be reduced into smaller lots for easier walkability. They encourage mixed use building development to encourage public access to the Jewelry District. Residential areas should contain ground level retail and other public access options as much as possible. To save money, encourage sustainability and lighten resource use, buildings should contain green roofs that encourage local food production. Buildings should also be LEED certified and more energy efficient. They believe that buildings and street lights need to utilize as much renewable energy resources as possible, such as wind and solar, to meet their energy demands. To become more independent and to minimize waste, they recommend that the Jewelry District buildings should also implement full cycle waste processing and composting (Providence Foundation, 2006.)
Brown Sustainable Initiatives
Brown has a High Performance Building Design initiative in which the design of current and new buildings is evaluated to decrease their overall energy use through LEED certification. Brown plans on reducing current overall buildings’ energy use 20 percent by 2012, reducing their energy use by 5 percent each year through better technology and efficiency initiatives. Brown plans to use renewable energy equivalent to at least 18,000 megawatt-hours of electricity by 2010 through energy generation at their buildings as well as outside investments in renewable energy projects. Brown established a target past 2010 of utilizing up to an additional 18,000 megawatt hours of renewable generation. With these initiatives, Brown buildings in the Jewelry District are striving to be more energy efficient (Department of Facilities Management, 2007.) These policies regarding energy and sustainability will apply to anything the University does in the Jewelry District. Long term performance, savings in energy costs and reducing its carbon footprint are Brown’s goals (Barnes, 2007.) |