Urban Design Massing & Density
scale of downtown buildings appropriate for city center except major parking zone low density zones just outside of center Historically, Main Street, Roosevelt Avenue (North Main Street) and Exchange Street had consistent building massing that was based on the technology and material construction systems of the time and allowed for buildings between three to six stories. As land values dropped and construction systems changed, lower density structures were added or in some cases older buildings were removed for high-rise structures or surface parking. Pawtucket had originally grown as a traditional city type (seen on the left) where consistent urban edges gave way to street canyons, but transitioned to a modern type (right) where buildings were placed as objects in an open landscape.
1920
Traditional urban fabric Modern urban fabric From a redevelopment plan of Boston in 1968; it should be noted that “Modern� here refers to the specific era of urban development that began after World War II and lasted until the early 1970s and not something relating to present times. The mid-twentieth century saw this change as a positive, forward-looking strategy that incorporated the automobile and opened up oppressively dense neighborhoods to open and green space. In hindsight, many urban historians describe these plans as destructive to neighborhood identity and current urban designers lament the priority of the automobile over more efficient and environmentally sustainable forms of transit. In Pawtucket, the current density result is a mostly consistently dense core, except for one large surface parking zone, surrounded by low density areas that transition the core into the residential neighborhoods. This open zone is ambiguous, more suburban in typology, and disconnects the urban density from where people primarily live. These zones are reinforced by the rail line and highway interventions which further disconnect the center from its supportive neighborhoods.
1945
Generalized diagram of current density pattern of downtown Pawtucket:
1968 14
existing conditions report