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The bridge serves as a symbol of Mike’s life work of bringing people together to build community, institutions, opportunity, and shared cultural experiences, and his ability to always see the vast imaginative potential where there is a blank canvas.

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The Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge is a footbridge crossing the Providence River located in the city of Providence, Rhode Island. The bridge connects Providence's Fox Point neighborhood to the city's Jewelry District. Originally known as the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge, in July 2020 it was renamed in honor of Michael S. Van Leesten.

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Michael S. Van Leesten
Civil rights advocate, community leader, veteran, entrepreneur, father, friend, athlete, and mentor.
Michael “Mike” S. Van Leesten was a civil rights activist, US Air Force veteran, business leader, and economic change agent, who spent his life in service to the public, and in pursuit of justice for all. A lifelong resident of Providence, and devoted father of six children, Mike was a founding member and CEO of the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) of Rhode Island, paving the way for the education and job training of countless African-American and other economic and racial minorities. Through his leadership, OIC constructed and Education and Job Training facility in South Providence which transformed into CCRI’s Liston Campus. At OIC, Mike created other organizations including Omni Development, providing affordable housing, and Opportunities Development Corporation, a business development Organization.

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The Box Office
This extraordinary assemblage, located on the former site of a lumber yard and adjacent to a prominent traffic artery, has deservedly become a local architectural landmark in less than five years. Created from 35 recycled shipping containers purchased in New Jersey, brought to Rhode Island, and modified off site, the complex evokes the work of Moshe Safdie (born 1938)—most notably Habitat 67, created for the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal.

This project was very much a collaborative effort among those involved in its creation, conceived from the beginning as environmentally friendly new construction. Its significance embraces several elements: thoughtful recycling of often-thoughtlessly-abandoned large objects, compelling juxtaposition of forms, and creating a new creating a new vision of urban architecture.

Not surprisingly, The Box Office complex houses a variety of Providence’s most innovative creative firms.

— Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook, 2013

South Side - Champion Hoodie

The South Side of Providence, Rhode Island, originally South Providence, is a term frequently used to describe the collective region comprising the official neighborhoods of Upper and Lower South Providence, Elmwood and the West End. The name was first used in the 1830s when the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad established its first station at a pier on the Providence River on a point of land about one half mile south of downtown Providence. The station was named South Providence.

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