Eastside Railway Tunnel

The Eastside Railway Tunnel Project is meant to confront the local history and uncover the hidden route under Providence. This is, like the surface wall it inhabits, is meant to be temporary and ephemeral while being bold and obtrusive. Like the current state of the tunnel, this project is not meant to last.

{Reclaiming this space means reckoning with its elaborate past. One thing remains clear; this route deserves a better purpose.}

Historical Statement

This barrier is a direct result of recklessness; behind it, there is a long, straight, and imposing tunnel carved under the city. The other end of the tunnel is diametrically and culturally opposed to this entrance. What stands between these two portals is a history emblematic of Providence.

In 1908 this tunnel was bored as an act of utility; Providence was an increasingly industrialized and labor-based community in the aftermath of its slave-trading prominence. Trains ran through this tunnel for nearly sixty years; unincumbered or disturbed, a facet in a well-diffused machine. Over the first half of the century, the Providence machine – and subsequently this industrial implement – grew less viable, tenable, and relevant. By the 1980s, the Eastside Railway Tunnel was decommissioned and left open, a retired cut through the city.

These walls are a materialization of conflict and liability; by the 1990s, the tunnel’s newfound purpose was a party landmark. In the fall of 1993, RISD students threw a huge party; 500 students were gathered in the space, bonfires, and music raging. Their recklessness and naivete were met with police tear gas and violence; the tunnel was shortly sealed thereafter.

Design Process