01:00 AM EST on Thursday, March 3, 2005

FOLKS WHO WERE OUT of town last week missed the announcement of five (5) new skyscrapers for downtown Providence, creating up to 720 new condos and 240 new hotel rooms.

Altogether, the five towers, if built on top of each other, would rise 135 stories -- equivalent to four Hospital Trust Towers stacked upon each other, or Providence Place mall standing on end.

They are: the Westin Hotel addition (200 hotel rooms and up to 80 condos in 28 stories); the Holiday Inn upgraded to a Hilton (40 more hotel rooms, plus 150 condos in a tower of 27 stories); 55 Broadway (up to 180 condos in a tower of 25 to 27 stories, where the round gas station used to be); CityLofts (175 to 200 moderately priced lofts in a 21-story tower near La Salle Square); and finally, 110 Westminster St., between the Arcade and the Turk's Head Building (130 condos in a tower of 32 stories).

Added to the apartments and hotel rooms recently completed, in construction or slated to break ground this spring in or near Capital Center or Downcity, the proposals bring the totals slated for downtown to 2,012 apartments and 594 hotel rooms.

The best is the Westin addition. It takes on the original Westin style, improved by a shape similar to that of New York's Woolworth Building (1913). Its roof tower and low gabled wing will transform the complex into a magical confabulation. Separated by the small domed lobby, the pair of buildings will seem to waltz together as you stroll toward them from Kennedy Plaza. Yes, we will lose a nice little green space, and a view of the mall's grand curvature. On the plus side, it will block views of GTECH, which by then will already block the State House.

The design for the addition resembles one I was shown before the original Westin was finished. I naturally assumed that, a decade later, the new developer, The Procaccianti Group, would dump it and hire a modernist to design something to conflict with the original -- something ugly, in accordance with the latest trends, hence appealing to journals of bad architecture. Instead, the new architect, Jung/Brannen Associates, of Boston, remained true to the original -- a higher order of creativity lost on most modernists.

My astonishment redoubled when, on Tuesday, I learned from Michael Voccola, the Procacciantis' chief of development, that the Hilton's tower is also intended to be attractive. It is the work of Humphreys & Partners, of Dallas. This will calm fears from last winter's Andres Duany charrette that La Salle Square would be goofed up -- as if the public wanted buildings to be standup comedians.

As for 55 Broadway and CityLofts, it is too early to comment. The Procacciantis and the Paolinos (who are involved in 55 Broadway) are footsying with Jung/Brannen, again, and Arquitectonica, of Miami. Hint: Design buildings the public will like, especially potential residents. That will help sales.

Finally, 110 Westminster, along with RISD's new Hospital Trust dorm and library project, will help revitalize the Financial District, and the Arcade in particular. "One Ten" makes the heart leap -- only to be shot down by the architecture. Designed by Cambridge Seven Associates, it does, I'll admit, mix the "old" with the "new" in ways I have urged before. But it overdoes the latter, and thus boxes its developers -- the Granoffs, of Providence, and Eamon O'Marah, of Boston's BlueChip Properties -- into demolishing the Westminster Street faade were not so modernist, it could fit -- and please more potential buyers.

However, the Granoffs are to be commended for saving the bank's Weybosset facade (1950), and for launching a project that will benefit the city even if its design is not all that one could wish for.

Expect to read more about all these buildings here -- especially those in need of advice!

David Brussat is a member of The Journal's editorial board. His e-mail is: dbrussat [at] projo.com