*9Daggett Court, in Providence*
*— Photos by William Morgan*

A trio of new townhouses, along with a once three-family home refashioned as a single contemporary residence just off North Main Street in Providence, are significant indicators of what happening to this heretofore neglected neighborhood (the hill between Camp and North Main, Olney and Rochambeau streets).

This small development on Daggett Court is noteworthy on several levels. Aside from the handsome design, this modest settlement tucked between Pleasant and Olney Streets points to a sensible way of adding much-needed housing, sprucing up the mixed area, and offering a more practical and city-affirming alternative to the over-scaled apartment blocks that have so assaulted Providence’s East Side.

Number 9 Daggett Court — the photo at the top of this essay and the first phase of this surprising urban oasis, is a 2,100-square-feet single-family home fashioned rising Phoenix-like from a multi-family dwelling. Taking it back to the studs, the architect fashioned a nearly new house with an intriguing triple-gabled skyline that peeks over its shorter neighbors.

Wrapped in vinyl and aluminum siding for reasons of economy, the north elevation looks like a handsome barn, and is rendered in black, one of the currently fashionable colors for new high-end “farm houses” on the East Side.

Realtor Kenneth Scotti’s information sheet declared, “Live the East Side dream in this Modern Masterpiece! Steps from Brown, RISD, and the Providence River waterfront, a brand new, meticulously crafted home designed by RISD alumnus Robert Calise awaits.”

But unlike similarly appointed, multimillion-dollar construction in the currently more desirable parts of the East Side, 9 Daggett sold for the relatively low price of $760,000.

The three attached condominiums at 12 Daggett Court continue the peaked-gable theme of the house, with the projecting second-stories. The rhythm of the jagged profile perhaps belies how spacious these units are. Each offers 1,800 square feet of living space, as well as four bedrooms and 2.5 baths; they will list for under $700,000.

The verticality of all of the dwellings on Daggett Court, coupled with the steep slope of the hill, give the homeowners more sunlight and expanded views down to Main Street to the downtown skyline.

The real-estate agent’s promotion is also unusual in that it mentions the name of the architect as a selling point. A Cranston native and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Robert Calise Jr., is also the developer. In addition to his academic training and three years of practical work with the Wakefield builders di Stefano Brothers, he credits his father, the insurance agent Robert Calise, as his chief inspiration. The elder Calise is also a developer with a strong interest in design, and together they have worked on this and other projects on Providence Pleasant and Gano Streets.

The younger Calise’s love of Providence and his small-increment approach to rejuvenating neighborhoods is refreshing. He has watched the changes “on the hill” along North Main Street and is convinced that the area can be developed through rehabilitating older houses and by small-scale development.

“Use a little creativity,” Calise says, “to develop postage-stamp-sized lots.” The future is renovation and infill, not massive constructions schemes.

The city gave Calise’s firm, ARCxBuild, hassles over parking, forcing the condominium design to go through four major iterations. The architect-developer wanted parking integrated within the structure, as at Number 9, while the city insisted that cars be stabled outdoors. One might think the city would do everything to encourage housing as good as Daggett Court.

By employing existing housing stock and inserting new structures in empty lots these four dwellings offer a rational way forward. The hill along North Main, rather than the Brown, Fox Point, and Wayland neighborhoods, are the logical places to encourage smart growth. In adding new housing in such a thoughtful way, Daggett Court reminds us that small is often better.

William Morgan is an architecture critic, historian and photographer based in Providence. He has taught at Princeton and Brown, and is the author of Academia: Collegiate Architecture in America. His Cape Cod Cottage was published this month.

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