Newport Technical Institute

Newport Technical Institute is a building dating from the Edwardian period, constructed in the Edwardian Baroque style. The building is of red brick, with bands and channelled details, and features extensive dressings in ashlar Bath stone, a granite plinth and porch, and a copper dome. It has two main floors, a basement, and an attic. A deep, heavily dentilled stone cornice tops the building, and the architrave of the entablature incorporates keystones to the first-floor windows. A wide, moulded stone band incorporating a sill band separates the two floors; the windows are mostly small-pane metal casements. The main entrance is situated on the corner of Clarence Place and Rodney Road. Above the entrance rises a copper dome on an octagonal brick drum, divided by a stone band with three windows to each face. The corner of the building is concave, with a convex, single-story porch. At attic level are three round stone windows (oculi) surrounded by garlands. Below these are three small-pane windows with aprons, and smaller openings to a balcony over the porch. The ground floor features a convex, single-story Doric porch constructed in granite, with radially paired columns, a frieze inscription reading "Newport Technical Institute" with swags to the entablature. The doorway behind has central double-leaf doors within a stone surround, flanked by recessed windows with ornamental glazing above, and a terrazzo floor. A deep, plain granite plinth is also present.

The Clarence Place elevation features slightly projecting stone end bays rising to attic level, incorporating semi-circular (Diocletian) windows with keystones set back between pilasters. Giant pilasters with recessed moulded panels enclose three windows divided by Doric columns with block corbels below at the first floor level, and three windows divided by rectangular pillars at ground floor level. Between the end bays is a six-window range, slightly recessed and set within stone surrounds between banded brick pilasters. The lower slope of the mansard roof is glazed to light work rooms, with panels separated by copper bands decorated with swags. The Rodney Road elevation is similar to the Clarence Place elevation, but with an eight-window range between the stone end bays. An additional brick bay at the south end has an attic round window with garlands. The St Vincent Road elevation is similar to the others, but features a basement with iron railings instead of a plinth, retaining granite sills. The left bay has an entrance with a shallow stone Doric porch attached, and a nine-window range follows. The central bay is narrower, featuring a classicising dormer and a shallow stone porch. The right-hand end bay also has a classicising dormer. The east return elevation has a tall, tapering octagonal chimney with metal bands and stone dressings.

Inside, a diagonal corridor runs from the entrance. The ground floor contains classrooms and workshops behind the main frontages. An octagonal inner vestibule, located beneath the dome, leads to a top-lit barrel-vaulted assembly room. There are further classrooms, workshops, and studios on the two upper floors.