When the innovation of creative young minds melds with the promise of historic Rhode Island, the sky is the limit.
This Fall, our team at NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley benefitted from our ongoing collaboration with the Interior Architecture Department (INTAR) at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Working under the thoughtful guidance of professor Elizabeth Debs, AIA, students spent the semester creatively designing options for rehabbing the historic Andrews Mill into beautiful and affordable homes. The mill sits on the Branch River in North Smithfield’s Branch Village, adjacent to the urban center of Woonsocket. Originally acquired by NeighborWorks in 2018, the project recently benefited from an ongoing RISD collaboration, which specializes in adaptive re-use and historic preservation while simultaneously supporting community engaged work.
“INTAR periodically does department wide “charettes,” an intensive competitive, design process, for a community partner who has a specific project in mind and would like help envisioning it,” RISD professor and architect Elizabeth Debs said. “My primary career has been in housing and community development. Naturally I asked Joe and Meg at NeighborWorks if they had anything interesting going on that they would like us to look at!”
Our team here at NeighborWorks is thrilled to see the historic saw tooth mill brought back to life after having served as home to a textile manufacturer, office space, and garbage dump over its impressive 100 plus year history.
The 33 acre property includes a machine shop, water tower and several smaller buildings. The main building features a unique saw tooth roof. This design was key in providing natural light for the textile workers that once worked in the Mill. The building was officially recognized with a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
“It’s a diamond. There’re not a whole lot of saw tooth mills left,” NWBRV Co-Director of Real Estate Development Bill Lewis said.
The Architecture/Interior Design course at RISD this fall included a site meeting at the Andrews Mill, a tour of existing NWBRV projects and briefing by NWBRV directors. Students researched the demographics of Woonsocket and North Smithfield, infrastructure, environmental concerns, and the historic properties nomination for the structure.
“We went to NWBRV community room for a review and the students presented to Joe, Meg and Bill, as well as their architect John O’Hearne, who is one of the best known affordable architects in the state and a RISD alum,” Elizabeth said. “Architecture/Design typically focuses on just the project at hand, while community development really looks comprehensively at how the project fits in and addresses both need and benefit. Literally looking outside the box has been revelatory for the students.”
“The presentation was essentially a brainstorming session,” Bill added. “The students discussed their creative ideas for the site’s reusage. One of the challenges they noted was providing natural light in the center areas of the building. They were imaginative in how they designed the residential units to account for this; some students deciding to use the center of the building for commercial space with residential units along the exterior walls. There was also a proposal for child care in the building which would be a great community amenity.”
Doing this project had so much personal meaning to me. As an international student, New England has always been unfamiliar in some ways, and doing this project helped me get to know the place, the culture and the people a lot. My “colleagues” from NWBRV gave me the impression that they really are looking into problems and know what they are doing – strong goals and shared values in mind. So it strikes me that there are probably more chances to do things creatively while working with a non-profit organization.”
Yiwei Chen, RISD senior, Interior Architecture department
The community-based learning experience for the RISD students generated meaningful conversations shedding light on the different profiles of people in need of housing, the concept of gentrification, as well as local politics and the impact on community development. RISD second year Master of Design student Jonathan Bell spoke enthusiastically about the collaboration, highlighting how the hands-on experience has broadened his vision of affordable housing.
“Being able to work with a real client brought dimension and depth to the project,” Jonathan said. “Having very specific, real world constraints provided a creative challenge and ultimately made each of our final projects not only more viable, but more human. Before this class, I had an admittedly narrow vision for what affordable housing could look like. Having the chance to work with the forward-thinking NeighborWorks team has opened my eyes to the many forms these types of developments can take.”
Typically, students do not work with clients until they are in the professional world – doing this project on the Andrews Mill allowed them to interact with super smart professionals who are not designers, and helped the students develop ways to elicit information, gauge client receptiveness, communicate clearly and practice presentation.”
Elizabeth Debs, RISD instructor
We at NeighborWorks would like to extend a special thank you to all those who supported the students in creating such thoughtful designs, including: Elizabeth Debs, Architect/RISD Faculty; John O’Hearne, Architect O’Hearne Associates; Janet Stegman, Architect/RISD Faculty; Rachel Robinson, Director of Preservation for the Providence Preservation Society; Joe Garlick, NWBRV Executive Director; Christian Caldarone, NWBRV Deputy Director, Bill Lewis, NWBRV Co-Director Real Estate Development, and Meg Rego, NWBRV Director of Resource Development & Communications.
We also want to extend a heart-felt thank you to the INTAR students who thoughtfully and creatively tackled this project and generously shared their time, skills, and perspectives.
