It’s as simple as this…
Culturally responsible design with a connectivity to people, history, and place irrespective of style. We need a new narrative, a new organization, or perhaps simple open sources ethos that will serve everyone as a new datum to build upon moving forward. One which espouses the high road politically and does not kowtow to any extreme minority. A new group with new ideas that can find a new solution to protect, preserve, and nurture classical, traditional, and modern architecture and arts…. with a simple message that a 5th grader can understand.
What is it about buildings that make you feel good?
They are familiar and friendly because they remind us of,
and relate to our past, nature, and people before us.
This simple solution, the combination of “Cultural Sustainability” and “Contextual Sustainability” provides a rule-set to define all design, irrespective of style. All design should have a connectivity to people, culture, and context/vernacular. Within that… Classicism and Traditional design live, new modernities can be discovered based on proven canons. Everyone wins, yet style is not necessarily mentioned. If we can abandon polemics for polite discourse and education, we can change the world.
Join our family…
David Andreozzi, Architect, RIBA
Andreozzi Architecture
David started Andreozzi Architects in 1988 specializing in historically based residential architecture; expressive of its sense of place, attentive to its detail and proportion, and timeless in its beauty.
David is the president of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art New England (ICAA), past national Advocacy Chairperson, and spent six years on the national board of the AIA’s Custom Residential Architects Network (CRAN) concluding as 2014 National Chairman. David lives in Bristol RI, where he served on the local historic district commission as chairman for years. A graduate of RISD, David is the son of a second generation carpenter, contractor, and developer. He grew up working construction sites specializing in carrying junk to the dumpster and over time graduated to framing, fine carpentry, bidding, drafting, and running complex jobs, which eventually led to furniture design/building at RISD. David continued with his education at Shope Reno Wharton in Greenwich, CT in the mid eighties.
dsra@andreozzi.com
Elizabeth McNicholas, Architect
McNicholas Architects
MA’s Principal “Beauty-Maker,” Elizabeth, channels lessons gained from years of living with chronic health challenges – including Stage IV breast cancer – into distinct insights about the impact of the built environment on human well-being. She and her husband and partner, Matt, have presented widely on the theme, including to the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and for the International Well Building Institute at Greenbuild in recent years.
Professionally, Elizabeth brings a broad range of experiences in civic, ecclesiastical, and residential design and master planning—from wide regional to focused neighborhood contexts—to bear on MA’s endeavors. Prior to co-founding McNicholas Architects, she cut her teeth on the designs of such notable projects as the United States Supreme Court Bookstore in Washington, D.C. and the King’s Cross Master Plan in London. She was privileged to work and study directly with her favorite architect-heroes, Demetri Porphyrios and Leon Krier, early in her career.
Elizabeth earned her Bachelor’s of Architecture and Master’s of Architectural Design and Urbanism degrees at the University of Notre Dame, holds a Certificate in Neuroscience for Architecture from the NewSchool of Architecture and Design, and is a member of the Society for Neuroscience. She is a founding Director and current Director-Emeritus for the Chicago-Midwest Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), and previously chaired the organization’s Education and Finance Committees. Lastly, Elizabeth is a New Urbanist. She has enjoyed multiple stints studying and working in the finest cities of Europe, though these days especially savors her current evening role as a “soccer mom.”
elizabeth@mglmarchitects.com
Dan Morales, Architect
Morales Architects
My interest in architecture began when my family moved to the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase from Rome, Italy. Lined with picturesque houses from the 1920s, it was a stark contrast to the modern apartment blocks I had known. This interest was furthered by the plan books my Mother brought home from her job as a realtor. Soon, I was designing houses I hoped would please others as much as my new neighborhood pleased me, but I was in for a shock when I began architecture school. I was told that modern architecture was not concerned with aesthetics, but intellectual concepts not visible to the eye.
After graduating, I began to study architectural history from original sources rather than the Modernist version we were taught. I learned that beauty, defined as a harmony of parts, had always been a goal of architects, from the smallest detail to the larger urban context. This led me to explore the psychology and neurology of human nature. It turns out there is a direct correlation between how architects used to design and how people perceive their surroundings.
Contrary to Modernist ideology, human nature has remained the same for thousands of years. This is why historic places continue to delight long after they were built. After more than 30 years of practicing traditional architecture and urbanism, I opened my firm dedicated to serving not only those I work for, but to the public, in whose sight and on whose land we build.
daniel@moralesarchitects.com