BETA Attends Unveiling of Portuguese Discovery Monument

On Monday October 28, 2013, BETA participated in the unveilling of one of its recent projects, the Portuguese Discovery Monument in Newport, RI. BETA team members Maggy Madarentz of Seekonk, Mass., architect of the monument’s redesign, is working with designer John O’Keefe. Arek Galle of BETA is the project manager. BETA was recognized, along with other team members, for its important role in the redevelopment of this historic monument in a ceremony at Brenton Point State Park.

The following was published in The Newport Daily News on October 30, 2013:

The Portuguese Discovery Monument at Brenton Point State Park in Newport is well on its way to restoration — or “resurrection” as attorney Robert M. Silva of Middletown put it during a dedication ceremony at the site Monday morning. Silva is president of the Portuguese Cultural Foundation and part of the six-member Monument Committee led by James Reed that is overseeing the re-creation of the monument that was erected in 1988. The state Department of Environmental Management demolished most of the monument to Portuguese explorers in 2007 because of safety concerns about the crumbling sandstone structure.

Joseph G. Dias of Newport is chief of DEM’s division of planning and development and also a member of the Monument Committee. When Bobcats pushed over the center column of the original monument and the surrounding 14 bollards — officially called “thimbles” — they “crumbled in a cloud of dust,” he said. Sandstone lasts for centuries in the Mediterranean climate of Portugal, Silva said, but cannot stand up to the wind, salt and storms of New England. The new monument, an expanded and refined version of the 1988 monument, is being constructed of granite.

The monument is being built in three phases; state and local officials gathered Monday to celebrate the near completion of the first phase. “I’m sure this is just the first of several dedication ceremonies we will be celebrating,” DEM Director Janet Coit said. The General Assembly appropriated $500,000 for the project, and the Luso-American population of southern New England will raise the remaining tens of thousands of dollars necessary to complete the project, Silva said. Just how much additional funding is necessary is unclear since bids for the second and third phases of construction have not gone out yet.

The monument is a contemporary rendering of the Compass Rose, a remaining artifact of the Portuguese Nautical School founded in 1418 by Prince Henry the Navigator in Sagres, at the southern tip of Portugal. The graduates of the school were the legendary Portuguese explorers who went on to discover new lands and sea routes around the world.

The original monument at Brenton Point State Park consisted of 18 separate elements carved out of a buff-colored sandstone quarried in Vila Vicosa, Portugal, according to original plans held by the Portuguese Cultural Foundation. The pieces together weighed more than 100 tons. The initial idea for building the monument came from Arthur Raposa of Middletown, who wanted to recognize Portuguese-American heritage. Sculptor Joao Charters de Almeida, a native of Portugal, designed the monument.

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