Category Archives: 1980s

The 1980s were an important decade for KITE. With the winning entry in the national design competition to design the newly accredited School of Architecture at Roger Williams College, KITE established itself as a formidable architecture firm that proved it could hold its own on the national stage.

School of Architecture, Roger Williams College

Conceived to provide a new home and department identity for a rapidly growing part of the school’s curriculum, this design was the winning entry in a national design competition that attracted an impressive array of entrants.

The design concept developed around a long, skylit central spine flanked on one side by administrative spaces on one side and linked design studios, stepped to reflect the challenges and natural attrition in each year of the program, on the other. A common gathering space and the department library terminate the ends of this linear two-story gallery. The architectural response to the program produced spaces where interchange is abundant and frequent among the faculty, staff, and students; materials that are durable; and construction techniques and building systems that are exposed and instructive.

Residential Properties Headquarters

KITE’s design for Residential Properties, Ltd. headquarters is on the high-visibility corner lot of residential Benefit Street and commercial Wickenden Street.  It provides 2,800 square feet of corporate office space and 3,600 square feet of rental space.

The building forms a broad sweep as it wraps this prominent corner site. The Wickenden Street front has large areas of street level glazing that respond to the adjacent commercial storefronts, while the Benefit Street elevation responds to its context by employing residential scale windows, chimney, and dormers.

Corporate offices are located on the third floor and mezzanine, taking advantage of the high ceilings and river views. The first and second floors accommodate an art gallery and commercial tenant respectively.

The Sloop Great Republic

This proposal marked the first design competition entered and won by KITE, and was a turning point in the design history of the firm.

Captain Howard Blackburn made a historic solo voyage in the 25 foot Sloop Republic from Gloucester to Lisbon in a record 41 days in 1901. A non-profit group sponsored the competition to create a permanent exhibit displaying his restored craft on the waterfront in Gloucester.

KITE’s winning entry was designed to dramatize the seaside context of the boat display with a full sized mural depicting the harbor as it was in 1901. It would allow the full rigging of the boat to be extended indoors, and by opening up one side of the enclosure to the sea, reflections of the water, sounds, and the scent of the ocean became part of the visitor experience.