A4 Guide: The Power of Place

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: Image of an Architect

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...
A4 Guide: HVAC Technology for Old Buildings

A4 Guide: HVAC Technology for Old Buildings

Even in old buildings, new technologies can be extremely beneficial. One relatively new HVAC technology that is becoming more popular each year is called “Ground source geothermal heat pump.” Rather than drawing its heat from either electricity or a fuel source, it...
Newport Architecture Spotlight: The Gilded Age

Newport Architecture Spotlight: The Gilded Age

Newport is fortunate to be a treasury of great architecture from a wide variety of periods. By a combination of happy accident and hard work, unlike many places where great works of architecture have been lost to successive periods of growth, Newport has maintained...
A4 Spotlight: Earth Day

A4 Spotlight: Earth Day

Sometimes, there is a swan hidden inside an ugly duckling. This Barrington house, built in the 1970s, had a low ranch roof and googly-eyed bay windows protruding asymmetrically. The new owners loved the magnificent, sweeping views the site enjoyed of Narragansett Bay...