A4 Architecture Blog
A4 Guide: How to Choose a Design
In a previous Archi-TEXT, it was discussed how to find the right architect for your project. But that is just the first step in your design journey. Now the fun part begins: how to choose a design and guide it. Your architect will be tasked with managing space and...
A4 Guide: How to Choose an Architect
In previous blogs, Archi-TEXT has addressed the issues of whether you need an architect and what value an architect can bring to your project. This article will address how to evaluate and select an architect. There are many things that you might want to find in an...
A4 Guide: Climate Change Impacts in Newport
Nowhere is the adage “Think Globally, Act Locally” more pertinent than in the area of global climate change. Since the recent election of Joseph Biden as President of the United States on January 20th, there have been a series of events in Newport that have reinforced...
A4 Guide: Becoming an Architect
Until the late nineteenth century, the process of becoming an architect was through apprenticeships and practice, and nearly exclusively for men. Like most crafts, one began as an “Apprentice,” graduated to “Journeyman,” and then late in life, if one worked hard and...
Newport Architect Spotlight: Peter Harrison
Among the many great architects who have worked in Newport, RI over the years, Peter Harrison (1716-1775) is often considered the first “true architect,” not only in Newport, but in the American colonies. There were accomplished architect-builders (like Richard...
A4 Guide: Things A Contractor Will Not Tell You
Everyone lives in a house or an apartment, so it is easy to ask, “How tricky can it be to build or renovate one?” The answer is “A lot harder than people think!” As an architect for more than 30 years, I have had a front row seat to hundreds of projects we have been...
Newport Architect Spotlight: Richard Munday
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 construction. Among the great...
Newport Architect Spotlight: McKim, Mead & White
Of all the many prolific and nationally recognized architects to work in Newport, Rhode Island, none have been more nationally recognized or more prolific with their designs than the firm of McKim, Mead & White. This firm was founded in New York originally as...
Newport Architect Spotlight: Richard Morris Hunt
Richard Morris Hunt, one of the most noteworthy architects of the last half of the 19th Century, had a strong and long affiliation with Newport. He met his wife, the heiress Catherine Howland, in Newport in 1860. He had an artist’s studio here as did his famous...
A4 Guide: The Power of Place
Winston Churchill once observed, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” He made this statement in the midst of World War II to the House of Lords calling for the rebuilding of the House of Commons to the same high standard of design and construction...
A4 Guide: A History of Energy Distribution
With the recent power outage in downtown Newport on November 30, we were all reminded of just how dependent most of us have become on electricity, the Internet, and the Artificial Intelligence available through computerized search tools. As we move as a city, state,...
A4 Guide: Image of an Architect
If architecture is the materialization of finance, technology, and zeitgeist into the structures that first serve then later represent each era, then what is the proper image of an architect, through whom all these complexities must be filtered? When one does a Google...