Goodbye Green, Hello Asphalt: The Death of Metacomet Golf Club–Architecture Critic Morgan
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Saturday 31 July 2021
Metacomet PHOTO: Screengrab of the video produced by the club in 2018
Does East Providence have a death wish? The city council’s approval of zoning plans to demolish the 138-acre Metacomet Gold Club for a mall with apartments, offices, and restaurants must be considered one of the biggest design mistakes since the city cut Interstate 195 in half in the 1960s.
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Providence skyline and harbor from the bike path near the former Metacomet Golf Club. PHOTO: Will Morgan
Marshall Properties, the Pawtucket-based developer of low-end shopping areas, apartments, and storage facilities, claims to offer “confident, creative solutions” as well as “a commitment to creating great properties aesthetically” (apparently without an architect). Their specialty seems to be massive office blocks, like 950 Warren Avenue and 375 Wampanoag Trail (both in East Providence and both 72,000 square feet) and the 75,000 square foot Storage Center Providence at the exit of Thurber’s Avenue on I-95.
375 Wampanoag Trail, East Providence. Marshall properties.
On behalf of Metacomet, Marshall has promised to convert the 120-year-old golf course “into an exciting, world-class mixed-use property … that will strengthen commerce and the community.” If you believe that, I can sell you a bridge. In short, the future of this green space will be like any other New England forest, park, or farm that has been lost to an ordinary mall – something as drab as Route 6 in Seekonk or Bald Hill Street in Warwick.
Clubhouse of the Metacomet Golf Club. The Scot Alan Ross, one of the great golf course designers of the century, laid out the course here in the 1920s.
East Providence is on the cusp of real change. It is the most likely “next desirable place,” a logical overflow destination for families and businesses now that the East Side is becoming overbuilt and overpriced. As described in a recent GoLocal story (https://www.golocalprov.com/business/east-providence-is-the-future-architecture-critic-will-morgan), the townies have a lot to offer in terms of a great location on the Seekonk River and Narragansett Bay. But they have to be smart about how to capitalize on these assets.
Destroying a gorgeous waterfront green space for something less than an exceptionally brilliant project would send the worst message of all. As Curt Spalding, former General Manager of Save The Bay noted, “Keeping the entire site as open space serves as an insurance policy against climate change.” Candy Seel from the grassroots opposition group Keep Metacomet Green criticizes the increasing traffic, the loss of habitat for wild animals and the “complete destruction of the quality of life around the country club”.
Keep Metacomet Green is a grassroots organization with several thousand members that campaigns against the destruction of the golf course. PHOTO: Will Morgan
Green Metacomet scenery is an integral part of Veterans Parkway, the jewel in the crown of fabulous East Providence Bay. This emerald green necklace meanders along the shores of the East Bay with unparalleled views of downtown Providence and the harbor. From the old town center of Watchemoket, Veterans – a park road in the truest sense of the word – winds gracefully for more than three kilometers to the south and offers a remarkable combination of bike path, maritime and skyline views as well as appealing, small residential streets (the area is always another real estate bargain.).
Gradually chop this up and soon the city will lose its greatest natural endowment. Marshall’s current plan is for a mix of retail, residential, office space, and assisted living in an area of millions of square feet. In contrast, the developer’s promise to get thirty acres of open space seems nothing short of a sell-off.
The rolling hills of the golf course imitated a picturesque English landscape. PHOTO: Will Morgan
Even if some open land survives, if we look down the street at Kettle Point, we can get a likely idea of what Marshall’s plan will look like.
Apartments at the Kettle Point. PHOTO: Will Morgan
Kettle Point touts its location as well as its “classic New England Seaside style, which only applies to its semi-detached houses. Most of the project is 4-story blocks that are like any new suburban development in Austin, Raleigh, or Kansas City. Kettle Point is also home to the vast University of Orthopedics, which is arguably the most beautiful promontory in Upper Bay.This might not be noticed along the New Jersey Turnpike, but who really believed that this environmentally insensitive tyrant would be life-enriching for Riverside?
The unfriendly neighbor of Kettle Point, University Orthopedics. PHOTO: Will Morgan
What small group is benefiting from the asphalting of Metacomet’s function as the lung of the city, not to mention its natural beauty and history? In 2021, cities will not give up green spaces: they will preserve them and try to buy more. As State Representative Gregg Amore stated, “I would be filled with remorse and regret for years if I did not try to preserve this special place for future generations of Townies.” Unfortunately, those same old forces of easy money over the public good will mean the loss of a treasure that would make East Providence even more desirable.
The bike path, Watchemocket Cove and Metacomet green space. Photo: Will Morgan
The architecture critic Morgan is the author of American Country Churches and The Almighty Wall: The Architecture of Henry Vaughan. He has taught in Princeton, Louisville and Roger Williams.
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