Lone Ranger

What am I then, chopped liver? I know. I'm so happy.

Waldmyn is filler, but I love Jon Sterling. And I agree with Garris: Castiglione and Truppiano are couple of old fogeys, and Truppiano is the biggest narcissistic windbag on the face of this earth. That guy looooooves the sound of his own voice. Those two -- literally -- cannot speak two consecutive sentences without pissing me off. I have this amusing dilemma when their broadcast is my only option: I want (need?) to catch the game, but I absolutely don't want to hear Truppiano. So I turn the radio on, but I turn the volume down until it's barely audible. That way, I miss most of the infuriating nuances of Truppiano's gamecalling but still keep up with the events of the game. Is that insane or what? I don't care. I'm a huge Sox fan, but when the Sox play the Yanks, you'll find me listening to the Yankees' broadcast. Sterling has class. Except when the Yankees a) hit a homer or b) win. I flip the radio off (quickly) for that.

No, but seriously, they had the tower completely encased in a temporary cubic surround structure for about a week -- wood frame, I assume, covered by plastic. Very visible from the highway, right at the 113 exit. And yeah, to me, it did look very much like a high-rise in progress. It's down now. I guess they painted the thing. I don't see any difference otherwise. From the highway, I'd can't say I'd ever really noticed the thing before. It's just a water tower. There are a couple there, one with the name Warwick painted across its storage tank. And there's a steeple and also the Pontiac Mills chimney/smokestack. Then all of a sudden this (large-looking) box appears on the horizon, and I'm panicking wondering what hell I missed.

What the heck are they doing to the water tower at the Pastore complex in Cranston?

That would mesh pretty well with Gusterfell's point about the decorative crowns. But there's a problem there, too: Travelers Tower is listed at 24 floors, Industrial Trust 26, Custom House Tower at 32. But I'm beginning to suspect the accuracy of the volume. The PPS Guide also makes this statement in its comments about the B of A building: The Biltmore isn't 23 stories, it's only 18. If you're going to act like an arrogant prick, you'd do well to get your facts straight while being so. And the authors of this guide are certainly self-important and pompous, spouting off prejudiced (and at times venomous) opinions as if they were Bible. Their remarks about the Old Stone Bank building, the Hospital Trust building, and the Citizens Tower are downright insulting. Erudition without a basis of fact and a contemptuous demeanor? I dunno about the rest of you, but that doesn't fly with with me. I paid $26 for this book. I hope nobody else here makes the same mistake.

Don't believe so. Even if they did, the statement was still wrong because the Superman building is still, to this day, the tallest in the state. Here, I'll give you the full quotation: Only if you don't consider the beacon atop the B of A building to be a structural element of the building itself can you consider any building in the state to be taller. In that case, of course, the tallest building in the state would be the Hospital Trust Tower. But the Hospital Trust building wasn't built in the 50's, it was built in the early 70's, so the PPS Guide still has inaccurate facts, if it's the case that the authors are thinking along these lines. I know there was a mini-controversy about this a couple of years ago, but I don't think too many people dispute the claim that the beacon atop the B of A is a structural element of the building itself. So realistically, the B of A building has been the tallest building in the state for nearly 85 years. Anyway, all that just goes to say that I'm pretty sure they writers didn't mean RI. Basically, what I'm thinking is that the truth of the matter is either a) that the PPS Guide is dead wrong about B of A being the tallest in NE for more than 20 years, or b) that the PPS Guide discounts the Custom House and Travelers Towers for other reasons, possibly because the tower element in neither building is an integral component of its edifice proper, but both are rather add-ons, so to speak. A picture or two, to illustrate. Custom House Tower: Travelers Tower: In both cases, you've kinda got the building and then you've got the tower. With the B of A building, that's clearly not the case. In other words, maybe the claim in the PPS Guide is based on a technicality. I dunno if I'm right. That's my best guess, though. If it's not that, then I dunno what the heck the PPS folks were thinking.

Question: the PPS Guide to Providence Architecture claims that the Industrial Trust Bldg (428 feet, 1927) was the tallest building in New England when built -- and furthermore claims that the building retained that distinction for more than 2 decades. Now, why would Hartford's Travelers Tower (527 feet, 1919) and Boston's Custom House Tower (496 feet, 1915) not be considered taller? What am I missing here? I have to believe that the seeming discrepancy is some technicality of classification with which I'm unfamiliar, because I can't possibly imagine that such a haughty little tome would simply get wrong a fact that basic.

I'm not married, but let me second the praise for that pic. More Pitt please!

Nice shot. You got everything in there.

Off-topic off-topic, but this comes from Emporis, the Providence main page, the About section:

Sweetness. Sorry, I have a weakness for puns. I can't help myself. But I mean it: that building is drop-dead gorgeous.

The man knows how to make an entrance.

That old City Hall is something, though. Do you happen to remember when it was built? Nah, nevermind, that's what Google is for. 1846, I find. Interesting.

Warwick Neck, right?

We were there pretty late, almost 11 I think. Long enough for the waitress to pour about 7 or 8 rounds of water, after we were done drinking. Hmm, well, we missed you. Then again, I guess it wouldn't do for the rest of us to be sick with your flu on Wednesday and you be the only person here well enough to show up.

5 pm, Trinity. I'm there.

I guess that makes me a YIMBY suburban opinion?

Not bad. Mr citation, are you talking about the runway expansion package, or just a more standard terminal expansion sans lengthened runway?

The HI Express, too, but I was referring to the two new office buildings next to it. Helloooooo suburbia.

And yet just down the street, maybe only half a mile away, they just built two prime examples of suburban-style office space, both buildings set well back from the Boulevard and surrounded by surface parking.

What's being built on the Fiddlesticks site in NK? Looks big-boxy, with promise of seas of surface parking. Pave paradise, etc.

I think that's my favorite angle on the skyline. But apparently it's a hard angle to capture, for a variety of reasons.

Not at all, they're very nice. The more I see of Greenville & Grand Rapids in this Photo forum, the more I like them both.

What a great idea that is!