A4 Architecture Blog
A4 Spotlight: Trinity Church & Queen Anne Square
Buildings don’t just make history at the time of their construction. They often reflect the times when they were enlarged or chosen for restoration and reconstruction rather than demolition. They also become important again when the area around them is redeveloped....
A4 Spotlight: “Affordable Housing Challenges”
Example of A4 Multifamily Housing In recent decades, the landscape of housing construction has undergone significant changes with several new challenges emerging that make it increasingly difficult to build affordable and accessible housing. From the upcoming...
A4 Spotlight: The International House Centenary
The International House (New York City, New York) On September 15, 2024, the International House of New York City turned 100 years old. This institution proves the power of architecture and design not just to change lives but to even help change the world. The...
A4 Spotlight: The 2024 Doris Duke Historic Preservation Awards
18th Annual Doris Duke Awards Invite Cover Newport has a rich history visible through the charm of many of its beautifully designed historic buildings and homes. Responsibility for the preservation and maintenance of these buildings has fallen to the people who...
A4 Spotlight: The History of Stick Framing
The United States construction industry and homeowners benefit from being on a continent that is rich is forests and wood resources. As a result, the vast majority of houses have been built not in stone or adobe brick, but from wood “stick framing” with a cladding of...
A4 Spotlight: CAD vs BIM
Proposed First Floor Plan of a Current Residential Project (Newport, RI) Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) has been a cornerstone of architectural and engineering design since the 1990’s. It revolutionized the industry by replacing traditional hand-drafting methods with...
A4 Sustainability: Carbon Sequestration
The planet is far past the point of being able to avoid Climate Chaos by simply reducing the amount of carbon dioxide humans discard into the atmosphere. The fact that Category 5 hurricanes are now occurring very early in the season along with the warming of oceans...
A4 Architecture Tour: From The Gilded Age Into The Modern Era Along Newport’s Waterfront
The Newport Architecture Tour Map Newport, since its founding in 1639, has been a community wedded to its waterfront and became known as the “City by The Sea”. During its early days, the community grew up on The Point and Historic Hill, with the city depending upon...
A4 Architecture Tour: Late Gilded Age, Ochre Point & Lower Bellevue
The Newport Architecture Tour Map Following the arrival of Caroline Astor (Mrs. William Backhouse When Astor Jr.) to Newport in 1880 things started to change rapidly. What had been a quiet and gentile summer retreat for old money people from New York, Boston,...
A4 Architecture Tour: Early Gilded Age Newport
The Newport Architecture Tour Map During Newport's occupation by the British forces from 1776 to 1779, the population of the town decreased by fifty percent, and it would never return to its status as the fifth most populated city in North America. It was, however,...
A4 Architecture Tour: The Point & Washington Square
The Newport Architecture Tour Map Newport Rhode Island was founded in 1639 when a freshwater spring was discovered near a protected deep-water harbor just off the Atlantic Ocean. Unlike other colonies, such as nearby Massachusetts, the colony of "Rhode Island and...
A4 Spotlight: Newport Casino, The American Temple to Tennis
This coming week the eyes of the tennis world will be on Newport as many of the players from Wimbledon will be competing in the Infosys Hall of Fame Open. This is the only ATP men’s tournament played on grass in North America and extends the tradition of tennis, which...