Garris

Quietly underway at 101 Plain St behind Rhode Island Hospital is an interesting building update. The old Bay Tower Nursing Home building, which is a "X" layout shaped tower of about 8-10 floors or so, is being redone into what looks like medical offices. The building, which was brick and inoffensive, is having its windows redone from horizontal strips of individual windows like you'd see in an old apartment building to having contiguous vertical glass stretching from ground level all the way to the top floor like you'd see in a modern office tower. It makes the building look 100% better and 100% taller. Cotuit here often mentions how when architects chose vertical window orientation it makes things look far more urban and far taller, and this building redo is a great example. I'll try to snap a photo next week...

Where on 146 is this? The Waterplace towers seem invisible from this view...

My spot is indeed Fatima. I want to get up on the roof there. Security is willing to let me up (it's one of the hospitals I'm at) but, since I'd be up there alone for several hours, they're not enthusiastic and I get the feeling it's a kind of a one-time-only deal, so I'm waiting for BCBS construction to advance more towards completion (at least being lit at night) since the BCBS building will be front and center in that view (it'll actually frame the lower left of the "big three" from there).

That 146S view is very hard to capture (especially without anything else in the frame, like wires, trucks, buildings, etc). You'd need a 2 story high ladder to do it justice (anyone with one of those ladder trucks who wants to loan it to us for a day??). There's an awesome view from North Providence (I'll need a mega zoom lens) that I want to shoot as soon as they are done with the BCBS building. The view is looking directly at the big three from up high and far away, with the rest of the city around it. It'll make an outstanding panorama. Does anyone have access to the pink J&W dorms on Federal Hill? I bet the view from there is awesome.

One interesting side-effect of Midwesting flooding... There were some interesting skyline shots of imperiled Midwestern cities in the media that were educational for me. While I've been to several cities and towns in Iowa, I hadn't been to Des Moines. Shots of its skyline were something of a surprise for a Midwestern city of its size, similar to Providence (190,000 in a metro of 600,000, vs our 180,000 in a metro of 800,000). Take a look! - Garris

Not to be a downer, but...

I'll have to get there eventually. There are two new sites North and Southwest of the city that have fantastic views that are on my list to hit first. - Garris

Nice shots! How tough is the ski run to access? Would you feel safe there at dusk/night? - Garris

Gusterfell, great photos! That first one is fantastic... So true... From other angles (from directly North especially and from Prospect Park) the Waterplace towers are front and center. - Garris

L'Shana Tova (Happy New Year) to all Jewish UP readers! And here's a New Year's gift for all... - Garris

I had thought only the MBTA, and not Amtrak, was stopping at the station? - Garris PS: So is this the final list? - Boston - Chicago (added from post below) - New York (I included Newark in the NY metro...) - Philadelphia - Minneapolis - Portland - San Francisco - St Louis (added from post below) - Washington DC (Reagan, Balt/Wash) Soon: - Providence - Seattle A great list to be on indeed! Although, in fairness, some of these cities' service to the downtown is far more frequent than ours will be...

Oh yes, I forgot Reagan. It's actually one of the most convenient (I just used it last month). So the list is: - Boston - New York (I included Newark in the NY metro...) - Philadelphia - Minneapolis - Portland - Washington DC (Reagan, Balt/Wash) Anywhere else? - Garris

I absolutely agree... The moving sidewalks are fine... This project can't happen fast enough. Slightly off topic, what are the other US cities with rail to downtown access? Off the top of my head, I can list: - Boston - New York (but it's long and a real pain) - Philadelphia - Minneapolis - Portland What others? - Garris

Two nice photos by Mike Savad, a NJ based photographer The first is presumably from the mall. This is a great perspective on our recent construction and how it turns Waterplace into a great urban canal/canyon: The next photo is entitled "City of the Future" (if only he knew the history of Capitol Cove), but it's a great shot of our "new" and "old" skylines, with the nice touch of including the train as well: I myself have a moratorium against shooting the skyline until all of the major construction is done... We'll see if 110 happens. If so, I'll hold off until it's done. If not, then I'll start snapping away! - Garris

Very funny... By the way, I found this photo online. I've never seen a photo before of Hospital Trust under construction! This one from the always amazing Sandor Bodo: - Garris

Frankie, a couple of possible reasons for this... 1) Is the 12X zoom fully optical or digital? If a part of the zoom is digital, that's the equivalent of using a cropping function on an editing program. So if half of your 12X zoom is optical (done by the lens) and the rest digital (done by cropping software in the camera), at 12X you have the equivalent of a 3 MP camera since it's digitally cropping to get that zoom... 2) If it is 12X optical zoom, remember that's it's hard for anyone to keep physically still enough past about 4-6X zoom to prevent some blurring with motion. Most professional lenses of that zoom or more and many high-zoom cameras have image stabilization (IS) to help at that level, but help is the best it can do. Does yours have IS? The best solution to fix that is to use a tripod. 3) Frankly (no pun intended), 12X is a crazy zoom... If this is an all in one camera (wide-angle to 12X all with one lens setup), then there are those folks out there who believe that the huge range of shooting that gives you has to inherently come with a bit of distortion and quality breakdown... Camera makers are really going crazy with MP and other features (like zooms) that are increasing complexity but not necessarily quality. Unless printing huge, poster-like prints or doing tons of cropping, anything above 4-6 MP is wasted and will just fill your memory card up. - Garris

How bad is the car theft situation at the PP/B Terminal on North Main right now? It's not exactly easy access any other way other than to drive... - Garris