Providence Place Mall
One Providence Place
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
Phone: 401-270-1000
http://www.providenceplace.com/
Providence Place Mall is beautifully decorated for this festive holiday season and is a great place to just wheel around, browse or shop for gifts for it is fully wheelchair accessible. The parking garage has many handicap parking spaces located right in the front of all the entry doors on all levels. I entered though the ‘Bed, Bath & Beyond’ entrance and this entrance has automatic doors.
I was told by a nice woman at the Information Desk at the mall that most of the mall entry doors are NOT automatic but some of the store entrances are automatic. This disappointed me for I thought all of the entry doors at this beautiful mall would be automatic. After my friends and I noticed that all doors not automatic still have a wheelchair accessible sign posted.
There are plenty of elevators throughout the entire mall so getting to an upper or lower floor is no problem at all. The big department stores in this mall are Macy’s, Nordstroms and JC Penny’s and all have elevators as well. I had no problem going up and down to the next level no matter where I was in the mall. The food court has a variety of fast food vendors and many of them have very good choices of all kinds of food. Even for us who are watching our calories like my friends and me! I noticed that the tables in the food court are of a perfect height for my wheelchair.
My friends and I decided to eat at the Nordstroms Café, which is on the third floor of Nordstroms (
http://shop.nordstrom.com/) . It is cafeteria style and they have a great view of the city of Providence and the RI State House. The food here is very good and at reasonable prices too. Nordstroms Cafe is very wheelchair accessible. The tables are of a good height and the service counters are of a wheelchair accessible height so I found no problem paying for my salad. All the employees are very friendly and helpful too. Nordstroms has a family/handicap single restroom located by the elevators on the third level which spacious and fully ADA compliant.
The rest rooms located at the food court are perfect. There are no doors to open. You turn into the door way and it’s sort of a circle but it’s very spacious and easy to get into the restroom. Once inside the restroom I found the handicapped stall to be large enough to fit my wheelchair and has the ADA required safety bars at a perfect height in back and on the side of the toilet. The accessible sink is of a perfect height for my wheelchair and the pipes under the sink are covered as is now ADA required. The soap dispenser and hand dryer are located on the wall that I was able to reach with ease.
Providence Place Mall is a great mall to shop at. I enjoyed my visit at the mall today and bought two small ornaments for my Christmas tree. I give Providence Place Mall FOUR STARS for wheelchairs accessibility. In order to earn the Fifth Star they would need to install automatic entry doors at ALL the mall’s entrances.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:45 am
[...] Vote Providence Place Mall [...]
January 9th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I stopped going to the Providence Place Mall because of the following reasons: 1. To gain access over the walk over bridge unless you have someone with you there is no way to open the doors on wither side of the bridge walkway from a wheel cahir. 2. Once you get over the walkway to the mall area the elevators take you only up to the seond floor and then you have to go down the corridor and come to doors that are hard if not impossible to open from a wheel chair to get to the elevators to go up to the next levels and when you get out of the elevator you have the same problem with the doors to get from the elevator hall into the mall itself. I have tried openning these door from my wheel cahir and power scooter and the door is heavy and hard to open and closes fast often I was hit by the closing door or my chair or scooter was slammed by the doors and scratched up. I hardly call this friendly to the disabled perosn and I complained to security about this and was laughed at.
January 10th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hi David,
I never entered this mall from the walk-over-bridge but can fully understand the problem you encountered with opening the heavy doors. I suggested that they install automatic entry doors at ALL the mall’s entrances to allow for independent access for all.
As for security laughing at you when you voiced your complaint – I think it is disgraceful, disrespectful and unprofessional. I would suggest that you report and file a complaint about this to mall/owner/management . I would hope they would reprimand or fire the disrespectful security person.
Best ,
Kenny
January 19th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
ha. go to the very top in the garage, dont be on the side where the very top is the roof… the other sides better, then theres a wheel chair button i use alll the time & im not even disabled and elevators. go to the right area
January 26th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Amy, I think you don’t understand that in order to get up to the section you are referring to you have to go all the way in the back of the mall. Most disabled people in Wheelchairs are not driving so getting to the top floor is a bit of walk/wheel as they would need to get to the elevators in the back first.
These automatic doors should be on all floors and in the front too. Most people in wheelchairs would be coming from that direction and to get to the back elevators in a wheelchair without a car can be dangerous too. Imagine going though the garage in a wheelchair? Glad you won’t have to experience that.