Interface

Abstract

This article details the vision, goals, and legacy of Interface: Providence, the 1974 Downtown Providence master plan that proposed to transform the city center into an autorestricted regional mass transit hub where public parks replaced surface parking lots and rigid functional zoning gave way to higher densities and mixed uses. Interface catalyzed a generation of Downtown advocates who valued historic preservation, walkable streets, and quality public spaces as first principles. And yet, the plan’s big-picture vision of a transit-oriented metropolis with Downtown as its center had relatively little impact on subsequent transportation policy, and, by this measure, Interface remains an untested proposition.