The riverside mill park is one of the important nodes on providence bike path system. It is located beside the river and has some really good landscape resource. However, the huge former industrial plant, which is adjacent to the park, cuts off the connection between the park and its south side from where people will come from downtown Providence. Due to the blocking effect of the plant, the main entrance of the park is located in a secondary road, which is not obvious to see. And the bike path is also arranged on the vehicle street rather than the beautiful river to avoid the plant. Plant itself is mixed-used as a flea market, furniture market, jewelry manufacturing and site engineering companies and has no connection with the riverside park behind. The former plant is causing the fragmentation of form and function in this area.

Our project will focus on reconnecting the form and function between the riverside park and the city texture on its south side, which is currently disconnected by the plant. Instead of tearing down the whole building and build something new, we will blur the hard boundary between the park and the plant and entirely transform them as a whole.

The design will enhance the spatial, ecological, economic and transportation connection continuity in our site. By moving the flea market to the second floor, we will have a huge open space on the first floor for artist studios there. The flea market on the second floor will be functionally connected with a flexibly used space in the park through unified structure. The adjacent space in the park will be temporally used as public workshop, flea market, exhibition space or gallery in different time according to demand. An ecological corridor will run through the building to reach the river, not only to purify and guide the rainwater from the huge parking lot into the river, but also open a corridor to reach the river landscape. The backyard of the plant will be open to public so that the bike path will also be reorganized to follow the river. Thus, the building will become a connection of ecology, economy and transportation, rather than a barrier, between urban space and our riverside mill park.