Perspective of Westminster Street
-
The city of Providence is geographically very compact, characteristic of
eastern seaboard cities that developed prior to use of the automobile. It is among the
most densely populated cities in the country. For this reason, Providence has the
eighth-highest percentage of pedestrian commuters.
[24][25]
The street layout is irregular—over one thousand streets (a great
number for the city's size) run haphazardly, connecting and radiating
from traditionally bustling places like
Market Square.
[26]
Downtown Providence has numerous 19th-century mercantile buildings in the
Federal
and Victorian architectural styles, as well as several post-modern and
modernist buildings, located throughout the area. In particular, a
fairly clear spatial separation appears between the areas of pre-1980s
development and post-1980s development. West Exchange Street and
Exchange Terrace serve as rough boundaries between the two.
The newer area, sometimes called "Capitol Center",
[27] includes
Providence Place Mall (1999), a
Westin hotel (1993) and
The Residences at the Westin (2007),
GTECH Corporation (2006),
Waterplace condominiums (2007), and
Waterplace Park
(1994); the area tends toward newer development, since much of it is
land reclaimed in the 1970s from a mass of railroad tracks referred to
colloquially as the "Chinese Wall".
[28] This part of Downtown is characterized by open spaces, wide roads, and intent landscaping.
The historic part of downtown has many streetscapes that look as they
did eighty years ago. Many of the state's tallest buildings are found
here. The
largest structure, to date, is the art-deco-styled former Industrial Trust Tower, currently the
Bank of America Building at 426 feet (130 m).
[29] By contrast, nearby to it is the second tallest
One Financial Plaza, designed in modern taut-skin cladding, constructed a half-century later.
[30] In between the two is
50 Kennedy Plaza. The
Textron Tower is also a core building to the modest Providence skyline. Downtown is also the home of the
Providence Biltmore and
Westminster Arcade, the oldest enclosed shopping mall in the U.S., built in 1828.
[31]
The city's southern waterfront, away from the downtown core, is the
location of many oil tanks, a docking station for a ferry boat, a
non-profit sailing center, bars, strip clubs, and power plants. The
Russian Submarine Museum was located here until 2008, after the submarine sank in a storm and was declared a loss. The
Fox Point Hurricane Barrier is also found here, built to protect Providence from
storm surge, like that which it had endured in the
1938 New England Hurricane and again in 1954 from
Hurricane Carol.
[32]
The majority of the cityscape comprises abandoned and revitalized industrial mills, double- and
triple-decker housing (though
row houses, found so commonly in other Northeast cities, are rare here),
[33] a small number of high-rise buildings (predominantly for housing the elderly), and single family homes.
I-95 serves as a physical barrier between the city's commercial core and neighborhoods such as
Federal Hill, and the
West End.
Climate
Providence has a
humid continental or
humid subtropical climate (
Köppen Cfa or Dfa) depending on the January
isotherm used, with warm summers, cold winters, and high humidity year-round. The
USDA places the city in
Hardiness zone 6b, with the suburbs falling in zones 6a - 7b.
[34] The influence of the
Atlantic Ocean keeps Providence, and the rest of the state of Rhode Island,
[35] warmer than many inland locales in New England.
[36][37]
January is the coldest month with a daily mean of 29.2 °F (−1.6 °C),
and low temperatures dropping to 10 °F (−12 °C) or lower an average of
11 days per winter,
[38]
while July is the warmest month with a daily mean of 73.5 °F (23.1 °C),
and highs rising to 90 °F (32 °C) or higher an average of 10 days per
summer.
[38] Extremes range from −17 °F (−27 °C) on February 9, 1934 to 104 °F (40 °C) on August 2, 1975;
[39]
the record cold daily maximum is 1 °F (−17 °C) on February 5, 1918,
while the record warm daily minimum is 80 °F (27 °C) on June 6, 1925.
[38]
Temperature readings of 0 °F (−18 °C) or lower are uncommon in
Providence, and generally occur once every several years. The year which
had the most days with a temperature reading of zero degrees or lower
was 2015 with eight days so far; one day in January and seven days in
February.
[38]
Conversely, temperature readings of 100 °F (38 °C) or higher are even
rarer, and the year with the most days in this category was 1944 with
three days, all of which were in August.
[38]
As with the rest of the northeastern seaboard, Providence receives
ample precipitation year-round. Monthly precipitation ranges from a high
of 4.43 inches (112.5 mm) in March to a low of 3.17 inches (80.5 mm) in
July.
[39]
In general, precipitation levels are slightly lesser in the summer
months than the winter months, when powerful storms known as
Nor'easters can cause significant snowfall and
blizzard conditions. Although
hurricanes are not frequent in coastal
New England, Providence's location at the head of Narragansett Bay makes it vulnerable to them.
