20th Annual Doris Duke Historic Preservation Awards – 2026 (Photo: Ross Cann)
Newport has a rich history visible through the charm of many of its beautifully designed historic buildings and homes. Responsibility for the majority of preservation and maintenance of these buildings falls to the people who presently inhabit the community. Newport’s culture and history have also gone through many shifts through its long existence. In 2007, to celebrate the people and projects that epitomize the value and benefit to the community that preserving the wonderful buildings of Newport County brings, the City of Newport and the Newport Restoration Foundation partnered to create the Doris Duke Preservation Awards.
Doris Duke
Doris Duke, the inspiration of this award, was a famous Newport socialite who was well known for her philanthropy and love of Newport’s historic architecture. She had a particular passion for saving colonial buildings, as well as founding the Newport Restoration Foundation, which purchased and renovated more than eighty Colonial-era houses and buildings in Newport.
On September 11 2026, the Rough Point mansion hosted the 20th annual Doris Duke Historic Preservation Awards. It is fitting that the ceremony took place at the house where Doris Duke lived for so many years, as her fortune and her great affection for this city saved a good portion of colonial Newport. This year, one individual and just two projects were honored.
DDPA at Rough Point (2026)
The Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) was founded by Duke in 1968. Today it still owns more than 70 historic houses and stewards Rough Point and Vernon House. The awards remain a joint program of the NRF and the City of Newport, and they recognize projects that carry that mission forward across Newport, Jamestown, Middletown, and Portsmouth. This year’s ceremony was sold out, set records for proceeds and sponsors, and drew a record number of nominations. Preservation in Newport, it seems, is in good health.
The President’s Award: Tom Perkins
Construction Partners Tom Perkins & Jerry Kirby (Compliments of Kirby Perkins Construction)
The first honor, the President’s Award, went posthumously to Tom Perkins for a lifetime of excellence in historic preservation at Kirby Perkins Construction. Preservation is patient work, often measured in decades rather than years, and it depends on individuals who establish and maintain high standards. This award recognizes the commitment and the vision Doris Duke set out more than half a century ago. Tom, and his wife Angie, were tragically lost this past year in a small plane crash and the award was accepted on his behalf by his two adult children.
Excellence in Historic Preservation: Miramar
Miramer (Design by Horace Trumbauer c.1912)
The first project honor went to Miramar, the 1912 Bellevue Avenue estate designed by Horace Trumbauer. Trumbauer was one of the great architects of the late Gilded Age, and Miramar is among his most significant Newport works. The restoration, led by owners Stephen and Christine Schwarzman, relied on careful historical research and on a large team of master artisans from both the United States and France.
This was a renovation where every detail matters and the quality of the work was exemplary. Buildings of this quality can’t be restored by ordinary means. Decorative plasterwork, stonework, ironwork, and millwork of this caliber require craftspeople who understand the original techniques, and not just the desired finished appearance. A restoration like this is really a deep exploration and replication of how the building was originally constructed.
The Resiliency Award: Spouting Rock Beach Association
Spouting Rock Beach Association Clubhouse
The second project award may be the most forward-looking in the program’s history. The Spouting Rock Beach Association, known to many Newporters as Bailey’s Beach, was honored for floodproofing its circa-1939 historic clubhouse. The project used a dry floodproofing system to protect the building from sea level rise, hurricanes, and coastal flooding while preserving its architectural integrity, since the original construction is located just a few feet above the current sea level. The Protective barrier can be implemented within 8 hours in advance of a hurricane.
Anyone who lives or works on Aquidneck Island knows that rising sea levels are not just hypothetical problems. Our historic buildings survived centuries of storms, but they were not designed for rising seas. The challenge is protecting them without compromising the very character that makes them worth protecting. Recognizing a resiliency project sends a useful message: preservation and adaptation are partners, and not opponents.
Why Architectural Preservation Matters
Newport’s architecture spans nearly four centuries, from colonial houses on the Point and Historic Hill to the Gilded Age palaces along Bellevue Avenue. That continuity did not happen by accident. It exists because owners, craftspeople, advocates, and institutions chose time and again to repair these structures rather than replacing them. The 2026 honorees show what that choice looks like today: rigorous restoration, thoughtful adaptation, and always keeping an eye on the long view.
A4 Architecture is pleased to have helped its clients win many Doris Duke Preservation Awards over the years, and we hope to help to design many more in the future. Newport is a city in which its future prosperity is often built on the heritage of its past, and it is wonderful that this connection continues to be celebrated by these awards now into their twentieth year.
Ross Sinclair Cann, AIA is a historian, educator and practicing architect. He is the Founding Principal of A4 Architecture in Newport, Rhode Island and holds architecture degrees from Yale, Cambridge and Columbia Universities. A4 Architecture has assisted its clients in winning three Doris Duke Preservation Awards since the awards were created in 2007 and Ross Cann has participated in them every year since the awards were founded.