Deming Sherman: Don’t put proposed state transit center at Station Park!

At Station Park, Providence, looking toward the train station, which is used by Amtrak and MBTA patrons.

                                                                                                August 31, 2026

Mayor Brett Smiley

City Hall

Providence, RI 02903

Dear Mayor Smiley:

I write as a former Chairman of the Capital Center Commission (for 12 years) to strongly object to the proposed use of Station Park in the Capital Center as a transit center.

 In 1981, the City of Providence, the State of Rhode Island, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Railway Administration signed an Agreement (MOA) (Exhibit D to attached letter to P. Alviti) pursuant to which regulations for the commercial development of the Capital Center were to be prepared and overseen by the Capital Center Commission.  The development guidelines were required to be consistent with the Design and Development Criteria prepared by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.  That was done. 

Central to the development were open spaces and view corridors to the magnificent McKim, Mead and White State House on Capitol Hill; indeed the MOA required this.  Station Park, also known as State House Park, was designated as Open Space, as was the State House lawn.  Specifically, the Regulations state (5.D.2):

“State House Park shall be an expansive green lawn which covers the railroad and completes the open space link between Union Station and. the State House.’’

“State House Park is envisioned as an informal, yet critical open space garden for the District.  It is an important link in the open space chain, which extends from the State House Lawn to Waterplace Park and Kennedy Plaza. . . State House Park shall be a public open space and shall not be used as a Development

site or to accommodate any off-street parking (emphasis added).’’

The transit proposal does violence to the agreement between the State, the City, and the federal government.  Both the State House lawn and Station Park should remain as is.

In 2017, the RI Department of Transportation issued a proposal to develop the eastern portion of the State House lawn for commercial buildings.  This was a clear violation of the Commission’s Regulations.  On behalf of the Commission, I strongly objected both at meetings with RIDOT and publicly.  The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a national non-profit organization that focuses on education about important landscapes, declared the lawn to be one of the top ten threatened landscapes in the nation.  Fortunately, the project eventually was dropped.  I have attached my letter to the Director of the Director of the Department that lays out in more detail the history of the Commission, its Regulations and the importance of open space and view corridors to the State House.  The proposed development of Station Park for a transit center will take up valuable open space (enjoyed recently by the public for watch parties) and will interrupt a key view corridor from Waterplace Park to the State House.  The reasons that require Station Park to remain open space are the same reasons that require the State House lawn to remain open space, as set forth in my letter.

In 2025, at the urging of the City, the Capital Center Commission and the Capital District were dissolved.  However, the Regulations were not specifically rescinded in the dissolution ordinance (Chapter 2025-15) and, therefore, may well remain in place pursuant to the MOA.  I previously recommended that the Regulations be folded into the Zoning Ordinance, but unfortunately that was not done.  At a minimum, I understood from the Department of Planning & Development that the Regulations would be guidelines for future development in the Capital District.  In any event, the Park is subject to zoning, where the question arises as to whether the proposal is even a permitted use, and any project with respect to this property is subject to the Downtown District Development Plan Review process.

Regardless of the status of the Regulations, open spaces are critical to the beauty and character of Providence, and there are a number of important open spaces that have been preserved or created along the Woonosquatucket and Providence Rivers and elsewhere.  The Downtown Providence Parks Network oversees a string of parks from the State House to upper Narragansett Bay.   It makes no sense to eviscerate the Capital Center Regulations that have been in place for more than 40 years, that have protected the open spaces in the District, and that have implemented the vision for the District, a vision that should continue.  If Station Park is developed, does this mean that the State House lawn is no longer protected?

Station Park and the State House lawn should remain as open space.

Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

____/s/ Deming E. Sherman_____

cc Joseph I. Mulligan, III, Director, Department of Planning & Development

    Christopher Durand, CEO, RIPTA

    Governor Dan McKee

    Christopher Marsella, Chairman, Providence Foundation

    David Salvatore, Executive Director, Providence Foundation

    Jeffrey Emidy, State Historic Preservation Officer

    Marisa Brown, Executive Director, Providence Preservation Society

    Suzanne Wernevi, Executive Director, Downtown Providence Parks Network

    Robert Rocchio, P.E., Director, RIDOT

    Thomas Verdi, Director of Department of Administration