A4 Architecture Blog
A4 Spotlight: Beachmound Renovation
Newport, Rhode Island is famous for its grand mansions. There were large houses built during the Colonial Era and the time between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, but it was during the Gilded Age which lasted from 1865 to 1915 that the largest number and...
Newport Spotlight: Rose Island Lighthouse
There is one kind of building type that is only found along the coastlines of the world: the lighthouse. From the earliest days when the great lighthouse at Alexandria was considered one of the great wonders of the ancient world, to the present day, these buildings...
A4 Spotlight: Ochre Court
Salve Regina University is celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 2022. Although plans by the Sisters of Mercy were set in place many years before, in 1947 the nuns received the gift of Ochre Court from the Goelet family. The building was originally designed by Richard...
A4 Spotlight: George Champlin Mason Jr. House
Amongst the many historic structures that populate Newport's rich architectural landscape, one name appears again and again: George Champlin Mason. From 1860 until the mid 1890s, George Champlin Mason Sr. and his son of the same name designed more than 150 notable...
Newport Spotlight: Redwood Library
Among the many firsts that Newport, Rhode Island is famous for and proud of is the Redwood Library, the oldest continuously operating purpose-built library in America. Through it's construction and expansion over time, the building has been an icon of both the history...
A4 Perspective: The Changing Waterfront
In the Colonial Era, Newport’s waterfront served as the community’s front door and its lifeblood. There was no other way to reach Newport than by the Long Wharf that projected out into the Narragansett Bay, and which served as the entry point not just for arrivals to...
A4 Perspective: Air Conditioning
Around the world, the signs of global warming are becoming unmistakable. An arctic glacier is hanging on by the barest of margins. One third of Pakistan was flooded in the recent monsoons, and one heat wave after another has created a record amount of wildfires in the...
A4 Spotlight: 2022 Doris Duke Preservation Awards
Newport is rich with history and historic charm visible through many beautifully designed buildings and homes. Preservation and maintenance of these buildings has fallen to the people who presently inhabit the area. Newport’s culture and history has gone through many...
Newport Spotlight: 141 Pelham
Parkgate, located at 141 Pelham Street, was designed by Newport architect George Champlin Mason Sr. Sitting at the corner of Pelham and Bellevue, the site has a rich historical past. In 1844, the site was home to The Atlantic Hotel. During the Civil War, between 1861...
Newport Spotlight: Chepstow Mansion
In 1860 George Champlin Mason designed an Italianate villa in Newport, RI for Edmund Henry Schermerhorn, who was an American and part of the old New York families of Dutch descent. Today that house is known as Chepstow. It is among a series of houses designed by Mason...
Newport Spotlight: Belmont Chapel Renovation
The Belmont Chapel, located in Newport’s Island Cemetery, was built in 1886 by Mr. and Mrs. August Belmont, Sr., as a tribute to their beloved daughter Jane, who died at the age of nineteen. The Chapel was designed in the Gothic style by father-son architect duo...
Newport Spotlight: Captain Marin House
The Captain Marin House was originally acquired in 1843 by George Henry Calvert and wife, Elizabeth Steuart when they relocated from Maryland. The house was designed in the "Cottage Orné" Gothic Revival style, which was popular at that time. This style is marked by...