NewPort Architecture, LLC

Mohamad Farzan and Dorienne Farzan successfully completed the second annual Pell Bridge Run on November 11th, crossing Newport’s Pell Bridge on foot along with over 2000 others.

Mohamad Farzan of NewPort Architecture was recently profiled in the Newport Daily News for his work on the ongoing renovation of the Redwood Library & Athaeneum in Newport. The full text of the article, which includes many fascinating details about the historic library, is below.

Historic Redwood Library undergoes seventh expansion

by Sean Flynn

NEWPORT — Since Peter Harrison, often called America’s first architect, constructed the Redwood Library and Athenaeum more than 262 years ago, the building has undergone six expansions. It is the oldest library building in continuous use in the country.

The seventh expansion of the library at 50 Bellevue Ave. in Newport is under way under the oversight of architect Mohamed Farzan, a principal of Newport Architecture LLC. The addition and remodeling is taking place on the south side of the library, facing the Newport Art Museum.

The newest expansion will include gallery space, workspace for archivists and compact shelving for more than 50,000 special collection books, folios, boxes and maps. The Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust is funding that part of the project.

A new Gallery-to-the-Garden space is being funded by Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince de Ramel and Frederick H. Prince, to honor their mother, the late Helen Elizabeth Peirce Prince.

The library currently has no direct access to the garden on the south side of the building, but the Prince gallery will create one. The new doors and walkway will tie together the campuses of the Redwood Library and the Newport Art Museum, Farzan said. The doors now visible on the library’s south exterior are not used because they lead into a climate-controlled gallery.

The original part of the library, the Harrison Room, opened in March 1750. Here, the original books are shelved as the first librarian, Ezra Stiles, placed them, according to size. Stiles later became president of Yale College, now a university.

The Terry Reading Room was added in 1858, and the Rovensky Room was built in 1875, according to a design by noted architect George Champlin Mason.

The design of those three historic sections of the library was based on the Athenaeum in Greece — library, reading room, art gallery. The Perry addition for book stacks was completed in 1912, an expansion of space off the Rovensky Room in 1940, and an expansion south from the Perry addition in 1985.

A 2005 addition expanded the room for book stacks and added a meeting room and a scholars’ reading room. The space off the Rovensky Room was restored to create the James and Candy Van Alen Art Gallery. Also that year, the library was totally restored with new ceilings, walls and refinished floors at a cost of $6.8 million.

Since the original construction, every subsequent architect followed the same Palladium rules when expanding the library’s footprint,
holding to the same axis and keeping the additions in proportion to the original building.

“It was always seamless,” Farzan said. “The architects followed the original detailing.”

That detailing included the frieze and moldings under the roof that features tryglyphs, the architectural term for vertically channeled
tablets.

The only exception was the 1985 addition, which had a basic roofline “like a Pizza Hut,” one observer said. That year, the construction
went off axis and was asymmetrical. The wing was 4 feet wider than the other wings, measuring 32 feet wide instead of 28 feet.

That changed the roof proportion, and a hip roof was constructed instead of a gable roof as on the other wings.

“There was a sense in the 1980s that new construction should not duplicate historic construction,” Farzan said. Some felt new
construction should be identifiable, he said. The Redwood hired Newport Architecture to improve the aesthetics of the 1985 wing
addition and to increase the storage capacity for its special collections stored at other locations.

Farzan’s re-design of the wing and the new gallery space that will run parallel to the Van Alen Gallery will feature the original detailing
used by Harrison and the architects who followed him. A new gable roof will be built over the 1985 wing, also called the McBean wing, to match the rest of the library.

As part of the current project, the 1985 wing was gutted and a new concrete floor with tracks for compact shelving was installed. To take advantage of a high ceiling below the new roof, the shelving will be 10 feet high.

“We are increasing the storage capacity for the special collections by 2 1/2 times,” Farzan said.

Many of the books in Redwood’s special collection, as well as maps, folios and boxes of photographs, now are stored in a fine-arts storage warehouse in the Boston area. When the new storage space is completed, the entire Redwood collection will be on site, Farzan said. “For the first time, everything will be inventoried and cataloged,” he said.

The floors inside the 1985 wing will be made level with the rest of the library, and the existing ramps will be eliminated so there is
easy access for book trolleys.

The entrance to the new Prince gallery will be constructed from the Rovensky Room, through what is now a south-facing window. At the other end of the gallery will be a door to the garden. The new gallery is in a space between existing wings, but all the historic walls will remain. The project is scheduled to be completed in February, but the contractor, Behan Brothers of Middletown, is hoping to beat that deadline, Farzan said.

The Redwood Library is listed as a National Historic Landmark and one of Save America’s Treasures. The state Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission and the city’s Historic District Commission approved all the work.

Dorienne West Farzan of NewPort Architecture, pictured third from left, was on hand to celebrate grants from the Rhode Island State Council On the Arts that will help fund the reopening of the Newport Opera House as a 500-700-seat performing arts center. Mohamad Farzan of NPA was previously responsible for restoring the facade of the historic 1867 theater, and is currently working to prepare for the reopening by ensuring that compliance with all codes is met. Once sufficient funds have been raised to re-open the Opera House, NPA will serve as the architect for future renovations and improvements.

To learn more about how you can support the Opera House–which would bring live theater, dance and music to Washington Square–please click here.

Rough Point, an 1891 Peabody & Stearns design with 1922 additions by Horace Trumbauer, is one of Bellevue Avenue’s world-renowned “summer cottages”. Once the residence of tobacco heiress Doris Duke, the estate now belongs to the Newport Restoration Foundation, which Duke founded. Mohamad Farzan of NPA* helped adapt this historic home for the modern age in several small but crucial ways.

First, in order to function as a museum, Rough Point needed to be handicap accessible and ADA compliant. Rather than set up an unsightly removable ramp at the door, Mohamad chose to simply raise the level of the entire driveway so that it reached the height of the main doorway. This subtle, dignified accommodation eliminated the need to add a ramp or other hardware to the building’s exterior.

Secondly, with the help of landscape architect Lucinda Brockway, Mohamad created a parking area for visitors to Rough Point, and took special care to ensure that it would fit with the existing landscapes, while providing a safe vehicular traffic flow. Cars are hidden from view from all angles, and the parking area was designed to ensure that none of the specimen trees on the property are adversely affected. The result is an attractive, functional space that accomodates visitors to Rough Point while maintaining the integrity of the former home.

*Project completed while at the former Newport Collaborative Architects

The Wall Street Journal recently featured a new trend coming out of Miami Beach, and it’s one that we like: skilled, creative architects designing parking garages.

You’d think that a parking garage might be the one project that no self-respecting architect wants to get.  But high-profile architects like Zaha Hadid (who Dorienne Farzan of NewPort Architecture had as a critic while studying at London’s Architectural Association) are redefining the parking garage as a space which can be as attractive, interesting, and well-designed as any other building in the city. The WSJ reports that “Miami Beach has become a magnet for high-end architects intent on rethinking what the often drab, utilitarian parking garage can be.”

Hopefully, this phenomenon won’t be limited to just one city–many towns could benefit from thinking more creatively when it comes to parking garages, and Newport is among them. As anyone who has tried to visit shops or restaurants in downtown Newport during the summer months knows, parking is very, very limited. Constructing a parking garage in one of the city’s existing lots could improve the quality of life for residents and enhance visitors’ experiences. However, many locals oppose the idea, and for a good reason: parking garages are ugly.

As architects, we believe that parking garages–like all structures–can be masterpieces of good design if executed correctly. Take a look at the WSJ’s slideshow of parking garages designed by architectural firms and see if you agree. Could Newport be next?