A4 Architecture Blog
A4 Spotlight: Real Estate: The Asset Class You Can Enjoy Every Day
Newport Cliffwalk When people compare investments, they often line up real estate next to stocks, art, and gold as if they're interchangeable slots in a portfolio, but this is an error. Real estate has a handful of characteristics — practical, financial, and even...
Archi-TEXT: Richard Munday, Colonial Architect-Builder
(Trinity Church - Newport, RI) Before there were architects in America, there were the great Architect-Builders. These were men who had developed drafting and building skills simultaneously through their careers and were able to apply them to the art and science of...
A4 Spotlight: Potential Changes to Section 106
(The Breakers, Richard Morris Hunt – Site of multiple A4 Architecture projects) Proposed Section 106 Overhaul Could Reshape Preservation For nearly sixty years, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) has required federal agencies to weigh how...
A4 Spotlight: Entertaining with Doris Duke
(Rough Point Newport, RI - Photographed by Julie Skarratt) The great mansions of Newport were designed to be imposing, grand, and spacious. But more than anything else, they were designed to allow their owners to entertain in a style that would impress their guests....
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...