A4 Architecture Blog
A4 Spotlight: Taxing Impervious Surfaces
(Washington Street Newport, RI Permeable Driveway by A4 Architecture) Newport Proposes a New Stormwater Fee, Joining a Growing National Trend Newport, Rhode Island, is potentially moving toward a significant change in how it pays for managing rainwater runoff. The...
A4 Spotlight: The Architectural Heritage of Jamestown, Rhode Island
(Alden Rd. Houses - Jamestown, RI) Although Newport and Jamestown, Rhode Island face one another across the Narragansett Bay, they are separated by far more than water. Although they have evolved together over time but have often gone in very different directions....
Newport Architecture Spotlight: The Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals at Fort Adams
(Newport Jazz Festival, 2016) The first Jazz Festival was conceived by Newport Socialite Elaine Lorillard in 1954, and a young Jazz impresario, George Wein, was hired to help run the program. Little did they know what a prominent international event this would become...
A4 Spotlight: The Newport Sabbatarian Meeting House: A Hidden Colonial-Era Treasure
(Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House - Newport, RI c.1890) Richard Munday was a Colonial-Era Architect-Builder who is famous for two noteworthy Newport structures: the Old Colony House and Trinity Church. He is also the author behind another structure that is now hidden...
A4 Spotlight: Renovating The Split Level
Shield Street House Renovation by A4 Architecture The Unlikely Redemption of the Split-Level Ranch Architecture is not just designing soaring skyscrapers or magnificent mansions. Architects are tasked with trying to make the world a better place, one building at a...
A4 Spotlight: Rhode Island’s Housing Challenges and Efforts
Center of 90 Unit Housing Development by A4 Architecture Rhode Island has earned a very unwelcome distinction: it is the 50th state in the nation in terms of housing production per capita. Over the last decade, it has had the lowest rate of total housing permits...
A4 Spotlight: The History and significance of Newport’s Marble House
Marble House (Richard Morris Hunt, 1888 - 1892) Origins and Construction Marble House is one of Newport great Gilded Age monuments. Located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, Marble House, was commissioned by railroad heir William Kissam Vanderbilt as a...
A4 Spotlight: The History and Legacy of America’s Cup Boulevard
Newport America's Cup Avenue Aerial (1970) Few thoroughfares in Newport carry as much civic controversy in their pavement as America's Cup Avenue. Named for the yacht races held in the city from 1930 until 1983, the boulevard was born not of maritime celebration but...
Newport Casino: The International Tennis Pantheon
Hall Of Fame Open, Newport Casino The Newport Casino was one of the first places that lawn tennis was played following the invention of the sport invented and patented by Major Walter Clopton Windale in 1874. The sport took elements of Real Tennis but applied them to...
A4 Spotlight: What architects do
What does an Architect actually do? Much more than you might think. When most people picture an architect, they imagine someone loosely sketching out a building plan on a drafting table. In reality, the job is far more complex than that, and after more than thirty...
A4 Spotlight: “Benefits of subsidized transit”
Route 67 Trolley (Bellevue Ave, Newport). What a Free Trolley Teaches Us About the Case for Free Transit Every summer, a fleet of trolleys rolls through the cobblestone streets of Newport, Rhode Island, carrying tens of thousands of riders to mansions, beaches, and...
History Finds a Home: Newport’s Center for Black History to Open on Juneteenth 2026
The Edward W. Kane & Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History (Newport, RI) On June 19, 2026, the city of Newport, Rhode Island will open a space dedicated to a history that its own civic memory long worked to erase. The city, founded in 1639 by religious...