COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Supporting existing community efforts
Woonasquatucket Greenway
Prominent wayfinding signage, and sensitive landscaping, at a key on-road corner of the greenway.
Public ART
Local artists created murals by busy bus station on frequently tagged surfaces and display of river-inspired fish sculptures
design week
Hosted DesignXri “Why Design in Olneyville” session featuring local designers
Creating business opportunity
Bringing new ventures into the neighborhood
Small spaces in transitional neighborhoods are classic breeding grounds for creative aspirations. The spatial configuration, lease-terms and management services for these spaces are targeted to provide first-time entrepreneurs with the opportunity they need to make their business dreams a reality. This has been the first location for all four of the building’s tenants to date, with three of these being women owned, and half minority led.
Of the four building tenants to date:
(excluding the developer’s firm)100% First business location
75% Businesses Women Owned
50% Businesses Minority Owned
public gallery + shop
Bringing Art to the People
After hosting pop-up gatherings, curated showings and creative events for years, the creative couple behind Public opened their gallery and shop on their home turf in Olneyville. Monthly the gallery rotates its work, featuring a diverse cast of fresh local talent. The gallery features not only artwork, but also hosts shows and poetry slams while the combined shop curates prints, clothing and decorative crafts.
“We were seeking a way to bring art to our community. Our goal was to build a creative hub, a place to collaborate, a place to try out all our ideas. So we opened Public: a space that welcomes all members of the community to experience and interact with art.”
Butterbang bakery
A taste of Paris in the heart of Olneyville.
Butterbang makes croissants like you’ve never tasted this side of the Atlantic. Whether it’s a classic, chocolate, almond, or audacious seasonal croissant, you can always count on the butter saturation and the flake factor hitting a 10. These small-batch, artisan-quality compositions are baked fresh for each session at his Providence studio, with ingrediants sourced as locally as possible. These “pups” can be found at the weekly Croissant Counter at the studio, at pop-up events or sold directly from his bike cart. If you see him, act fast— his dedicated followers travel from as far as Boston, and early sell-outs are not uncommon.
bites by bre
Comfort Food for Adventurous Eaters
“We make and celebrate food. We do soul-hugging flavors. We do wizardry. We foster plate-licking with every meal. Each week, through our Meal Delivery service, we fill the fridges of foodies all over Rhode Island with fork-ready goodness. We also craft community events, moonlit dinner parties and legendary pop-ups. We are often called ‘the best food happening in Providence,’ and we blush to agree. Gather around our table and start drooling. We can’t wait to feed you.”- Bre
Studio meja architecture
Transforming Broken Buildings into Meaningful Places
Studio MEJA Architecture’s mission is to transforming broken buildings into meaningful places, that are people first, place based and purpose driven. In our quest to make cities—and their people—perform better, we’ve developed specialties in urban rehabilitation, mission-driven schools and organizational culture projects.
We function primarily as guides, leading our clients through a mission-driven design process, and helping them craft a delivery strategy fit to their particular team, so that their finished project maximizes the impact of their unique mission.
