Robert A.M. Stern (Photo Credits: RAMSA)
Although Robert A.M. Stern (who passed away on November 27, 2025, at age 86) designed buildings around the world, he always had a close affection for Newport, Rhode Island. Beginning with his affiliation with prominent architectural historian Vincent Scully, (who co-authored “The Architectural Heritage of Newport, Rhode Island” early in his career), while Stern was at the Yale Graduate School of Architecture during the 1960s, to his lifelong love of the Shingle Style (which was first invented in Newport), Stern always used the architectural treasury of the city as a touchstone for his work. He ultimately ended up designing three buildings in Newport himself over his career.
Newport Houses by Robert A.M Stern
Stern’s deep connection to the city’s architectural past provided a rich source of inspiration that defined his Postmodern and New Classical sensibilities. Newport’s Gilded Age mansions, particularly those that exemplify the American Shingle Style—like McKim, Mead & White’s iconic work—offered Stern a vocabulary of complexity, texture, and regional sensitivity that he championed against the sterile uniformity of high modernism, which was dominant at the time of his graduation.
Rodgers Recreation Center and Athletic Fieldhouse at Salve Regina University (Photo Credits: RAMSA)
His affection for the city eventually translated into commissions, allowing him to directly contribute to the architectural landscape he so admired. Stern’s first major Newport project was the Rodgers Recreation Center and Athletic Fieldhouse at Salve Regina University. Completed in 2000, the design is a masterful interpretation of the classic Shingle Style. The exterior features the characteristic wood shingles and prominent gables, echoing the grand summer “cottages” nearby, yet its scale and detailing are ideally suited for a modern collegiate athletic facility. It seamlessly bridges the gap between the university’s historic residential neighbors and the functional requirements of a large contemporary sports complex. By burying the structure half underground, the design manages to create a large facility that feels from the outside more residential in scale.
Inside the Rodgers Recreation Center and Athletic Fieldhouse. (Photo Credits: RAMSA)
Following this success, Stern was given an honorary doctorate by Salve Regina and was invited to return to the campus to design the Our Lady of Mercy Chapel. Dedicated in 2011, the chapel is perhaps the purest expression of his innovative hybrid style in Newport. The structure features a striking limestone tower and shingle façade, employing traditional architectural elements—columns, arches, and a monumental entry—to create a sense of timeless elegance. Unlike the fieldhouse’s unadulterated Shingle Style, the chapel is a tribute to ecclesiastic classicism, carefully scaled to harmonize with the Gothic and Gilded Age buildings that dominate the core of the campus, particularly those designed by Richard Morris Hunt.
Our Lady of Mercy Chapel (Photo Credits:RAMSA)
Stern’s third significant and last Newport commission was for the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF). Here, he designed the indoor tennis facilities and administration offices, completed in 2015. The challenge was to update and expand a campus that honored the historic Newport Casino, a National Historic Landmark designed by McKim, Mead & White. Stern’s design respects the material palette and picturesque quality of the original Gilded Age complex, using red brick, green trim, natural cedar shingles, and classical detailing to integrate the new structures with the existing structures. The design not only provided state-of-the-art facilities but ensured that the new additions felt like a natural, respectful evolution of the historically significant site.
Interior of Our Lady of Mercy Chapel (Photo Credits: RAMSA)
Robert A.M. Stern’s designs in Newport are a physical manifestation of his lifelong dialogue with and love of architectural history, particularly the work of McKim, Mead, and White. His respect for Newport was so ardent that, every ten years, Stern would send 30-40 staff members from his architectural office to Newport for a week to study Newport’s extraordinary architecture. By drawing on the city’s rich vocabulary—from the rustic elegance of the Shingle Style to the monumentality of Classicism—he reinforced Newport’s status as a living museum of American architecture, and helped secure his own legacy, which is inextricably linked to the place he was deeply enamored with.
International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) (Photo Credits: RAMSA)
If you are interested in having a building that blends the best of traditional and modern architecture together, please feel free to reach out to A4 Architecture to assist you.
Ross Sinclair Cann, AIA, LEED AP, is a historian, author, and educator. He majored in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics in college and holds design and architectural history degrees from Yale, Cambridge, and Columbia Universities. He is the Founding Principal of A4 Architecture (founded in 2004) and is the Founding Chairman of the Architectural Forum (a community organization founded in 2007).