Five Questions With: David Andreozzi

David Andreozzi is principal of Andreozzi Architects, a Barrington-based architecture firm that specializes in historically based, residential and commercial projects throughout New England.
David Andreozzi is principal of Andreozzi Architects, a Barrington-based architecture firm that specializes in historically based, residential and commercial projects throughout New England.

David Andreozzi is principal of Andreozzi Architects, a Barrington-based architecture firm that specializes in historically based, residential and commercial projects throughout New England. Educated at Rhode Island School of Design, Andreozzi started the company in 1988. He is the current vice president of the New England Institute of Classical Architecture and Art. In 2014, he was the national chairman for The American Institute of Architects’ Custom Residential Architecture Network. The work of Andreozzi Architects has been featured by PBS on “This Old House” as well as through numerous awards.
PBN: I was interested in your work to fit an addition to a historic building, Dr. John T. Romano’s dentist office in Providence. When you design, are you trying for a literal match of architectural style or something that is complementary?
ANDREOZZI:
I spent many years on the Historic District Commission in Bristol, including a chairmanship. When serving, our decisions were governed by the Secretary of Interior’s Standards. One of these standards, number three, to me, is flawed. It states: “each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, will not be undertaken.”
While I agree that we shouldn’t be trying to trick the public with minute detail reproductions, like reproducing antiquated construction and manufacturing techniques to ‘fake’ history, I feel strongly that from a distance an addition to a historic structure should match the original overall design concept or “parti” that was created by the designer or craftsman. To this point, I did an informal survey of almost 300 architects and 100 percent of them agreed that they would rather a future addition to their work match the original design rather than differentiate itself. With Dr. Romano’s office building we did exactly that, reproduced the original structure in scale for a unified imagery between new and old, but kept clues within the differentiation between new and old moldings so that upon further reflection it is obvious what is a newer addition.
PBN: What is the appeal of shingle style architecture? Why was it used historically and how is it being used now in construction?
ANDREOZZI:
This is too long to explain in a paragraph or two. Shingle style was America’s first attempt to discover a style that was truly born from America’s cultural and regional vernacular. This movement, started in the Picturesque art movement in Europe in the 17th century, was a search for the sublime and the beautiful, relating to the idiosyncrasies of a project’s natural landscape, started by artists like Claude Lorrain and Gaspard Poussin. Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, this same ethos became the building block for an architectural movement in response to neo-classicism. Architects like John Nash (1752-1835), Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912), Sir Ernest George (1839-1922) and Edwin Lutyens (1868-1944) each spent their lives trying to understand what makes an architecture idiosyncratic and unique to its own site and culture.
From this movement in Europe, American architects like McKim Mead and White and later Frank Lloyd Wright would ask that same question about American architecture. Therein lies the birth of shingle style architecture, considered truly modern at its inception. The two most famous houses that mark the movement are the Isaac Bell House in Newport, now a museum, and the William G. Low House in Bristol, which was razed in 1962.
PBN: Your firm is designing several custom homes on the waterfront. What are the owners asking for, in general, in their homes and how has that changed over your career?
ANDREOZZI:
When I started there was a desire to capture the essence of a Victorian based shingle style home in both exterior imagery and interior organization. Today, most clients want me to marry a much more open and modern floor plan with the same historically based exterior imagery.
PBN: Do you have a favorite project in Rhode Island? One that you still go back to and visit from time to time?
ANDREOZZI:
It’s funny, but I view the project more as a verb more than a noun, the interactive relationship with the patron rather than the final product. To that end, every successful design experience is like another child to me, I love them all.
PBN: What is the future for architects? Is there enough work for young architects getting into this field?
ANDREOZZI:
Short term? What is the future of art? To me, an artist, not an economist, it really depends on whether our country is going to come together and solve our increasing government debt. If not, I think the future does not bode well for any of us, especially artists. Long term, I believe the future of architecture is going to go through the same transformation that the food industry has since the Slow Food Movement was born in 1986. Today, people are starting to care about what we eat, where it comes from and how it was grown or genetically modified. I think the same will happen with architecture. I call it cultural sustainability.

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