Mark Alan Hewitt


Mark Alan Hewitt is an American architect, preservationist and architectural historian. He is especially known for his work on architectural history and the history of architectural drawing "as a medium of thought."

Biography

Born in Berwyn, Illinois, Hewitt attended Sammamish High School in Bellevue, Washington, graduating in 1971. He went to Yale University to study acting and English literature, but a class with Vincent Scully convinced him to change his major to architecture. Graduating from Yale in 1975, he pursued his Master of Architecture degree at the University of Pennsylvania, studying with Allan Greenberg, Robert A.M. Stern, David Van Zanten, and Steven Izenour.
After graduating in 1978, Hewitt served a two-year apprenticeship with the firm of Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown. While there, he taught a studio with Steve Izenour called Beach, Boardwalk and Boulevard: The Built Environment of Atlantic City, NJ that later became an exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York.
Hewitt has taught architecture and historic preservation at Rice University, Columbia University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and, most recently, as a visiting faculty member at Rutgers University.
Hewitt was the recipient of an NEH Fellowship at the Winterthur Museum in 1996, and was honored with the Arthur Ross Award in 2009 for his writing on classical architecture. He lives and practices in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
Hewitt is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects. He sings with a number of choral and a cappella groups, including Ridge Light Opera, the Alumni of the Yale Russian Chorus, and Harmonium: A Classical Choral Society.

Work

Hewitt's research and writing has addressed American architecture and architects from 1880 to 1940, American country houses and domestic architecture, classical architecture and treatises on the orders, the work of Gustav Stickley, and architectural conservation. His latest research, on the neuroscience of design, resulted in the publication of the first cognitive history of architectural design in 2020.
Hewitt currently practices architecture under the name Mark Alan Hewitt Architects. The firm primarily addresses historic preservation and residential architecture with projects including restoration and renovation, new additions and some entirely new buildings.

Selected publications

;Articles, a selection