URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2016_Melissa-McCarthy

Detail of bronze relief on the 1868 Matthew Calbraith Perry Monument by John Quincy Adams Ward, leading 19th century American sculptor, Touro Park. Newport, RI.

University of Rhode Island Professor Ronald Onorato constantly seeks to uncover new aspects of history through architecture and public sculpture. Chair of the University’s Department of Art and Art History, Onorato focuses his research on revealing the sense of a place through the constructed environment of buildings and public monuments, often discovering unconventional meanings in these works. “You can take the cultural temperature of an era by understanding its architecture,” Onorato says. “For example, late 19th and early 20th century skyscrapers tell us about the development of new technologies like steel framing as well as the rapid growth of cities and how real estate in those places became so valuable that buildings had to be built up rather than spread out.”

Spring | 2016 Page 17