Woonsocket Middle School has been closed for 14 years, but developers are working to breathe new life into the school and transform it into approximately 150 apartments. The project is just one of the new adaptive reuse projects underway in Rhode Island as developers work to repurpose unused buildings such as old schools and factories to address the state’s housing crisis. In this episode of the Bruno Brief, we learn more about the details of this story and fill you in on other important news from the week.
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Carter Moyer
Welcome back to the Bruno Brief. I’m Carter Moyer, podcast producer. On this week’s episode, we spoke with Stella Chen, senior staff writer, about her reporting on the repurposing of Rhode Island’s buildings to address the state’s housing crisis.
Earlier this year, state House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi introduced a bill to make the process of repurposing buildings — a procedure known as adaptive reuse — easier. The bill, which passed the General Assembly and is set to go into effect next year, aims to increase the state’s stock of affordable housing by requiring developers to dedicate a certain portion of units in these repurposed buildings to low- and moderate-income housing.
Carter Moyer
So how did this story come to be?
Stella Chen
So the Rhode Island State House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi passed a series of housing bills this past legislative session. There were 14 bills and 13 passed the General Assembly. So one of the bills focuses on adaptive reuse in Rhode Island which transforms and recycles old buildings like factories or office buildings into a new building for a purpose different than what was originally imagined.
Carter Moyer
And when is this law planned to go into effect?
Stella Chen
So Shekarchi’s housing package is not yet into effect. It will go into effect on January 1st 2024, which is what is currently planned. Because the Woonsocket Middle School project started before that, it started earlier this year, these laws and the adaptive reuse bill will not apply.
Carter Moyer
So this is more of a case study in what adaptive reuse can look like. Who did you talk to for this story?
Stella Chen
I spoke to Speaker Shekarchi and I also spoke to the Director of HousingWorksRI, Brenda Clement, and I also spoke to David Sisson who is the principal architect of David Sisson Architecture and the project architect for the Woonsocket Middle School Redevelopment project, which is an example of adaptive reuse in action.
Carter Moyer
What is so important about adaptive reuse?
Stella Chen
What I found out more in detail when I talked to Shekarchi and Clement is that Rhode Island is facing a housing crisis, so adaptive reuse allows for more affordable housing stock which by increasing the housing stock the prices stabilize and adaptive reuse is more environmentally friendly, because you're reusing old buildings.
Carter Moyer
You got to go into Woonsocket Middle School to see it firsthand, what can you say of that experience?
Stella Chen
I will say that was probably the coolest interview I've ever done, so Woonsocket Middle School was a lot larger than what I was imagining in my head. According to Sisson, Woonsocket Middle School is the largest abandoned middle school in New England. The school was abandoned in December of 2009. So there were no working lights, I had to wear a hard hat with like a little lamp on it. There was glass, broken glass on the floor. The ceiling tiles were flaking, the basement was leaking water, the floors had water damage. It was very run down, but I thought it was really cool to see what this huge school had turned into over the last 14 years and how they're going to take this building and turn it into something new.
Carter Moyer
Stella, thanks so much for coming in
Stella Chen
Thanks so much for having me.
Carter Moyer
Now here is a recap of other important stories from the week.
At a public City Council hearing on Tuesday evening, student activists from the University criticized the two proposed voluntary payment agreements between Providence and non-profit educational institutions, including Brown. On Thursday, the city council’s finance committee approved the bills, sending them to the full City Council for a vote.
Undergraduate teaching assistants in BIOL 0200: “The Foundation of Living Systems” were told earlier this month that almost half of the course’s staff would be let go before being told by the course’s professors that their hours would be reduced instead. In a separate instance, last spring, students hired and trained as TAs for ENGN 0030: “Introduction to Engineering” were informed that the course was canceled for the fall.
In other news, a new coffee shop is set to open in the Chen Family Hall at the Brook Street Dormitories in mid-November. Pawtucket-based coffee supplier Hazel Origin Coffee is scheduled to begin construction this week and, when open, the shop will serve traditional coffee drinks and a variety of food options.
Lastly, starting this fall linguistics became its own independent program, separate from what is currently the Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Science department. Professor of Linguistics Pauline Jacobson said she hopes that the program’s expansion will allow the department to cover sociolinguistics, syntax, morphology and historical linguistics in greater detail.
Thanks again for tuning into the third episode of this season of the Bruno Brief. This episode was produced by me, Carter Moyer, Jacob Smollen, Finn Kirkpatrick, edited by Amanda Sun, Christine Okulo, Annabelle Kim and Julia Gallent, and scripted by Tevah Gevelber. If you like what you hear, subscribe to The Bruno Brief wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.
Music Credits:
Denzel Sprak: https://app.sessions.blue/browse/track/203142
