The $455 million Providence Place Mall opened in August, 1999 in Providence, Rhode Island, as one of the largest retail complexes in the country and is one of Rhode Island’s largest private projects to date. Located on 13.5 acres adjacent to Route 95, in between the State House and Convention Center, the 3.8 million square foot structure contains 1.3 million square feet of gross leasable area, structured parking for 4500 cars, a 16-plex stores Hoyt’s Theater and an Imax Theater. Filenes’s, Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom's anchor. A 180-foot long pedestrian bridge connects the mall to the Westin Hotel and Convention Center. Construction began in May of 1997, and Boston based Morse Diesel International, Inc. was the construction manager for the project.

In order to utilize all available real estate, the mall and its two garages are constructed over the Woonsocket River, five Amtrak rail lines and two major utility easements. A combination of drilled caissons up to 5 feet in diameter, 300 steel h-piles and 1425 precast concrete piles ranging between 80 and 160 feet deep were installed to support the building amongst the myriad of existing site utilities encountered within the utility “corridors”. Upward of 50 individual column transfers were required to mesh the retail & parking grids with the supporting foundations in the utility corridors alone. More than once a transfer was created or relocated to avoid utilities “found” during foundation excavation. The complexity of the site and the building massing created many individual areas of design intensity.

Expansion joints break up the project into 8 separate buildings. These buildings range in height from 122 feet to 195 feet above grade. Each building utilizes a balance of structural steel, poured in place concrete floors in metal form deck, and precast concrete framing. Nine 12 feet deep 120 feet long steel transfer girders are arranged to carry three levels of the mall and theaters over the Woonsocket River. Opposite to the river, nine 2-story trusses ranging in span from 40 feet to 120 feet carry portions of the South Garage, mall and theaters over the rail lines. Central to this transfer system is a 135-ton, two-story deep spine truss with two spans of 96 feet and 70 feet to support the trusses from the South and plate girders to the North. The North and South garages are joined over the river by a 4 level vehicle bridge, which is supported by two 110 feet long 2-story trusses. Seventeen different fabricators provided the 22,500 tons of steel for the project. The 12 feet wide, 30 feet and 60 feet long precast double tees and girders (2900 separate pieces) frame 1.2 million square feet of the 2.0 million square feet of garage structures. Steel columns support the precast. Intricate detailing was required to maintain diaphragm continuity between the poured in place and precast floor areas. Structural steel eccentrically braced frames resist wind and earthquake loads for all the buildings.

Six story high glass walls at each end of the central “Winter Garden” provides dramatic views to the east and west from the mall levels. An arch shaped roof spans 120 feet over this area. Exposed pipe trusses supported by pipe shaped “tree” columns carry the center 65 feet span. Perpendicular to the “Barrel Vault” 200 linear feet of gable shaped skylights illuminate the mall promenades and four story high well openings, where several of the 34 separate escalators and pairs of glass elevators will transfer patrons between the mall and garage levels. A 16-plex, 4500 seat Hoyt’s Theater is located on the twelfth floor. Each house is designed with stadium style seating. The 635 seat house number 16, when completed, will be the largest individual movie house in New England. The overall Hoyt’s Theater footprint is supported on four different “buildings” as dictated by expansion joints through its space. The Imax Theater also has its “ground” floor on the roof of the mall. Its six story high screen will entertain 456 moviegoers in stadium style seating that curves around the screen area. Five-foot deep joist girders provide a 90 foot clear span over the Imax footprint.