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In a seaside city that’ s always buzzing with events, activities, and leisure pursuits – historic buildings, sailing, art and antiques shows, and folk and jazz festivals – Mark Horan, owner of Horan Building Co( Horan), feels proud to call Newport home, and sees it as the ideal place to run his company. Newport is shaped by some of America’ s most celebrated architects, including McKim, Mead & White, George Champlin Mason, and Peabody & Stearns, and the city’ s growing reputation is attracting even more clients.
“ Newport’ s a very rich architectural area,” Mark shares.“ There’ s an abundance of diversity in design, and we’ re fortunate to work on some incredible architecture from the mid-1800s to 1900, a prolific period here with some of the best-known architects in our history, even today. McKim, Mead & White, for instance, also carried out work at Madison Square Garden and Columbia University.”
That philosophy shines in a recent, complete gut renovation of a 144-year-old shingle-style home on Red Cross Avenue. Once again, it was a project originally designed by McKim, Mead & White. Once divided into a seven-unit apartment building, it’ s now restored to three units: a
Focus on quality
Since launching in 1992, the custom home builder has offered a wide range of services.“ Not only do we construct new builds on client property, but we also take on a lot of high-end renovations, many of them historic buildings. We offer design-build as well, and quite often purchase property to renovate and sell,” Mark explains. Shingle-style construction is prevalent in Newport, but the firm’ s portfolio also features modern designs and, as Mark puts it,“ every shape of Victorian.”
“ It’ s incredibly varied; we rarely build the same house twice,” he continues.“ I like that: the opportunity, the creativity, and the ingenuity of trying new things and making each project site-specific. Everything should be based on orientation, light, usability, and access.”
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