Wrapup: Traditional Building Conference, Newport, June 2022

Newport R.I. June 14, 2022
Contact: Carolyn Walsh cwalsh@aimmedia.com

On the rugged coastline of Newport, amidst Gilded Age marble mansions and 18^th Century seaport architecture, the Traditional Building Conference’s second event in the 2022 Series hosted over 200 architects, builders, building owners, building artisans and their material suppliers for two days of education, architectural tours and entertainment, including the annual Palladio Awards gala ceremony.

The Traditional Building Conference venue was the historic Griswold House, a Richard Morris Hunt “stick-style” building now the Newport Art Museum. Between seminars, tours and meals designed for networking, attendees wandered through the museum which is replete with American Art. Classroom seminars we held in the morning with a break for lunch on the wrap-around front porch. Additional seminars ended at three o’clock whereupon attendees boarded air-conditioned buses and embarked on architectural tours in and around the charming city of Newport, Rhode Island.

Seminars, approved for AIA Learning Units, included “The Architects Dream” presented by John Tschirch, architectural historian whose illustrated lecture described the evolution of Newport architecture from colonial to Victorian to the Gilded Age mansions of the early 20^th century. “The Quiet Wisdom of Climate-Based Design,” was presented by Cory Rouillard AIA, LEED AP, Associate Partner with Jan Hird Pokorny Associates of New York. This seminar introduced ISF or “inherently sustainable features” a database of climate- based solutions for sustainability. A digital ISF best practices catalogue will soon be available from the Association of Preservation Technology International.

Architectural tours included a walk around the historic Salve Regina University campus which overlooks Narragansett Bay. Salve’s campus in a cornucopia of classical buildings including the chapel which has rare, salvaged John Lafarge (1835-1910) stained glass windows and shingle-style eyebrows on a gently sloping roof. 

 Rough Point Museum was a hard-hat tour where a multi-phase exterior restoration project is underway showing best practices for slate roof, brownstone and granite masonry restorations. 

Across the Bay the restoration of St George’s School chapel was explored and explained by their project architect, Robert Douglass, AIA, LEED AP of Voith MacTavish Architects LLP.

Materials and methods were part of the education too, with sessions on terra cotta clay tile, glass technology; windows and millwork with sponsor displays of masonry, metalwork and period-authentic storm panels. The technical representatives from leading suppliers of traditional building products mingled with their customers and prospects throughout the seminars, tours, cocktail parties and meals.

On the evening of the first day, in the opulent ballroom of the Ochre Court at Salve Regina, the Traditional Building Conference presented the 2022 Palladio Awards during a ceremony and gala dinner. Fourteen awards were bestowed for residential, commercial and institutional building, traditional design excellence. This year’s Palladio projects will be featured again in the July/August issue of TRADITIONAL BUILDING.

The Traditional Building Conference Series and TRADITIONAL BUILDING magazine are part of Active Interest Media’s Home Group, which also publishes OLD HOUSE JOURNAL, OHJ’s RENOVATION LOOKBOOK, ARTS and CRAFTS HOMES, the NEW OLD HOUSE, PERIOD HOMES DIGITAL, ANTIQUE TRADER, TIMBER HOME LIVING and HORTICULTURE. The Home Group serves over 50 million professionals and enthusiasts in the $170 billion traditional building marketplace.