Whit Schroder
ARCH 1150
Professor Harmansah
22 October 2007
The Restoration of an Abandoned Heterotopia into a Privileged Heterotopia: The Masonic Temple in Providence
	In his lecture “Des Espace Autres” given in 1967, Michel Foucault discusses the use of “other places,” or “counter-sites” less visited in a city that paradoxically exist in the real world, being connected with all the space that surrounds them, yet remaining unreal and taking on imaginary qualities to those who pass by every day. Foucault defines these other places, heterotopias, in multiple ways that can seem as abstruse as the term itself. Heterotopias can be unused or forgotten spaces, such as cemeteries, that are culturally significant to a city’s inhabitants yet remain taboo to visit. However, another type of heterotopia can be that which is used by a small, privileged body of a society, such as a palace that can only be entered by royalty. As described in Zeynep Kezer’s article about the restoration of Turkey’s Sultanahmet prison into the Four Seasons Istanbul Hotel, one type of heterotopia can be transformed into another. A prison, a heterotopia of deviation, an area “in which individuals whose behavior is deviant in relation to the required mean or norm are placed,” can become an elusive, sacred heterotopic site. In Providence, Rhode Island, a similar metamorphosis has taken place, at the aptly named Renaissance Hotel, formerly known as the Masonic Temple, or Mason Building. Derelict and dilapidated for decades, this building was restored and reopened in June of 2007, exemplifying how heterotopias can be converted yet become even less accessible to the public.
	The Masonic Temple has languished opposite the State House on Francis Street since its construction was halted seventy-five years ago. The fraternal organization, or secret society, known as the Freemasons had begun development of the edifice in the early 1920s, along with that of a second building next door and a triangular tunnel to link the two structures. Interestingly, this entire complex was itself initially intended to be a heterotopia, serving as a private meeting hall for the Freemasons, but because of a lack of funds and charges of embezzlement at the onset of the Great Depression, as well as a loss of workers who had left to fight in the Second World War, the buildings were left abandoned and unfinished until 1944. At this time, the smaller of the two buildings was converted into the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, which opened in 1950, and the triangular building that connected the VMA to the Masonic Temple was removed, entirely isolating, as it were, the Mason Building from the rest of the city.
	For the next fifty years, the Masonic Temple remained an abandoned, heterotopic site, attracting urban explorers and graffiti artists. As Foucault would describe, the Masonic Temple took on “a system of opening and closing that both isolate[d] [it] and [made it] penetrable.” The building became a site of memories, good and bad, to many Rhode Islanders. One person commenting about the Masonic Temple on the web site “Art in Ruins” writes “the amount of people and stories I have about that place are far too many to mention here,” and many other posts describe wonderful anecdotes about the experiences that the building provided. To those who walked by the temple every day, it became a beautiful, yet depressing site. As Route 95 was built through Downtown Providence and the brownfield land and abandoned rail yard next door became the Providence Place Mall, the unfinished Masonic Temple sadly remained an “eye-sore” to many people who passed it on a daily basis, when the building had been originally constructed in order to compliment the architectural style of the capitol across the street.
	In fact, a study in 1960 reported that the temple “invariably induced deep despair” and should be demolished. Ironically, the state could not spare money for the building’s demolition. By 1993, in order to protect the historic building, the Masonic Temple was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the Providence Preservation Society listed it on the top ten list of the most endangered sites in Providence.
	Finally, by 1997, hotel projects were being discussed. In 2004, developers Sage Hospitality Resources began the restoration of the neglected temple. The project was completed in June of 2007, and the Masonic Temple is now known as the Marriott Renaissance luxury hotel, complete with 274-rooms, a number of grand ballrooms, and a dozen meeting rooms. At least the hotel is being used and protected now, but so many memories have been lost. Although some of the graffiti artists who made themselves famous inside the Masonic Temple were invited to decorate some of the interior spaces of the new hotel, overall, the Renaissance Hotel is now even less accessible than its abandoned predecessor. As Kezer observes, “the hotel is an example of this more elusive sort of heterotopic site, where what appears to be a public space is, indeed carefully monitored and only selectively accessible.”
	The history of the Masonic Temple provides two examples of how abandoned spaces can be transformed. While one part of the Masonic Temple was converted into the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, a public space where community members can share and create new experiences, another part of the building became a restricted, prerogative site only accessible to those willing to squander the money for a night’s stay, creating brief experiences after indirectly destroying the abandoned dreams of Freemasons and workers who were unable to complete the building and the memories of those brave and interested enough to explore an untouchable heterotopia, forgotten but always in plain site to passersby.            
Barbarisi, Daniel. “Temple Digs.” The Providence Journal. May 20, 2007. http://www.projo.com/news/content/temple20_05-20-07_U55N40I.2951dc8.html
Foucalt, Michel. “Des Espaces Autres.”
Kezer, Zeynep. “If Walls Could Talk: Exploring the Dimensions of Heterotopia at the Four Seasons Istanbul Hotel.”
Landis, Bruce. “Derelict for 75 Years, Temple Gets a New Life.” Providence Journal. July 16, 2004.