Providence building to be made of shipping containers
1:23 PM Tue, May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. --- An office made out of shipping containers, the state's first, will open in the city's Olneyville section in March, on the site of a former lumber company, developer Peter Gill Case announced Tuesday at a news conference. The Box Office will be a three-story building made from 32 recycled steel shipping containers. The 10,000-square-foot building will have 12 office and studio spaces. 
Rendering courtesy of Truth Box Inc.
It will be built near the intersection of Harris and Atwells avenues, on the site of the former Harris Lumber Company, much of which was razed in 2001. Tuesday morning was the official "groundbreaking" (a single tree was planted) and a number of old shipping containers have been stacked up on the property to give a sense of what the building might look like from the street. "Buildings like this one bring new life to these iconic objects," Case said. "My kids ask: are those Legos? The Lego interpretation is apt. We've all seen these modular shapes on trucks, trains, and ships, and stacked up at urban ports as though they were already buildings. Why not reuse them?" 
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They should put up a few of these on the east side in the Brown U. campus area. Lot better looking than some of the buildings that they have constructed recently.
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Reminds me of Habitat in Montreal-
This will be wonderful for our city!
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The Harris Lumber Co. was a great structure- complex actually. Never should have been razed. This container thing has no business at this site, and will be a massive eysore.
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The construction field always has it ups and downs and is always changing but progress will never stop. Even in a questionable economy there is always room for growth and expansion. The will and strength of the people is what makes us all able to move forward and accomplish great feats together and construction has always been the backbone of this country no matter the economic status.
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Flagship projects like this stand in stark contrast to other projects that fain vanguard and ingenuity. I look at the empty Westin or Water Place Park apartments, or the recently sold Capital Cove to J&W - as dorm and faculty-housing spill off - or any number of broken, torn-down, half started projects and buildings over the years that never gained traction nor provided the services promised. Then I look at The Dreyfus, for example, which has never lacked occupancy or interest. There are two messages here, and the medium is the building.
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Very ugly. In only a few decades this building will have people asking... "what were they thinking?"
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