Ribbon Cutting Thursday At Breakers Welcome Center

NEWPORT, RI—Designed to echo "late nineteenth-century garden conservatory architecture," the new Welcome Center at The Breakers was officially opened this afternoon. The building cost more than $5 million, the preservation society said, and took more than a decade of planning. It also sparked a feud pitting the society against neighbors and members of the Vanderbilt family. Through it all, the Preservation Society insisted a welcome center was needed. The Welcome Center opponents said it might be needed but should go someplace else. It wasn't part of the historic property, and it detracted from the mansion.

But now it's completed. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was at 5 p.m.

"The Welcome Center will operate virtually unseen as it supplies a gracious introduction to all of the Preservation Society's properties," said Preservation Society Chairman Monty Burnham. "It will provide the cordial hospitality that our visitors deserve, with limited refreshments, climate controlled places to rest, and clean and accessible bathrooms. The 450,000 people who visit The Breakers from more than 100 countries every year deserve nothing less."

The building was designed by Alan Joslin, of Epstein Joslin Architects in Cambridge, Mass.

"This is a compact, one-story design that is in harmony with the structures and the historic landscape of The Breakers, and puts all the necessary visitor services under one roof just as travelers arrive on the property," he said.

According to the society's press release, "the exterior of the Welcome Center is unified around a botanical theme, with its curved and patinated copper shingle roof, the entwined mullions framing the surrounding glass walls, the tapered columns, and the long sweep of downspouts at the corner/ Green finishes and copper bowls of hanging flowers further enhance the theme."

Inside, the "structure has been designed with the appearance of several interconnected pavilions of varying sizes," the society continued. "The ticketing pavilion contains a series of interactive orientation display screens that introduce the history of the Newport Mansions and ticketing stations with large touch screens. Across the foyer is the café pavilion, which features light refreshments. Visitors can sit inside the conservatory-like pavilion or out on adjoining stone terraces in the garden. Between the ticketing and café pavilions are easily accessible restrooms.

The Welcome Center is also located in a "rehabilitated" garden, which is meant to capture some of the original garden's spirit, the landscape designer said.

Courtesy Photo: Preservation Society of Newport County