Cityscape of Providence, Rhode Island

 

Perspective of Westminster Street

Downtown Providence at Burnside Park

The Downtown Providence skyline, viewed from College Hill on the city's East Side

See also: List of tallest buildings in Providence

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

Waterplace Park

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.