ABOUT REDE: A Staging Area for the 21st Century

The Research and Design Institute (REDE) was more than a design office, it was a philosophy ahead of its time. The mission of REDE established in it charter in 1966 was: “Demonstrate that superior environments from schools, housing, medical facilities, urban environments and workspaces would attract an entrepreneurial population to Rhode Island and promote economic growth.   

The methodology was simple:

• Indentify the status quo
• Create innovative demonstrations
• Promote Change

Now, in the 22nd year of the 21st century we would like to share some of that philosophy with a new generation of designers and thinkers. The projects and ideas of REDE are more relevant then ever. 

At a talk to the Providence RI Rotary Club in November 1966, Ron Beckman quoted Konrad Lorenz, biologist: “The danger to modern mantises is not so much from his power of mastering natural phenomenon as from his powerlessness is entirely the consequence of the last of human insight into the causation of human behavior.

Nothing has changed.

REDE (The Research and Design Institute) was a not-for-profit, independent agency staffed by professionals from the design arts and the behavioral sciences, organized to generate a service industry for the country based in the state of Rhode Island.

REDE directed toward problems of urban development, education, medical practice, communications, transportation, manufacture, conservation, population, automation, cyber-nation, art and science — as they affect and are affected by design. In other words: what to do with technology, what to do for life on earth.

REDE’S PURPOSE IS STILL RELEVANT TODAY:

This is a world of increasing things. We have an over-abundance of objects all over the landscape. There is an urgent need for ideas. Our faith in various professions working in isolation is ill-placed, an engineer has described the situation — ”we are highly skilled at problem solving — an engineer’s education is a series of responses to posers — what we require however are problem staters.” The programmers, planners, problem staters — to establish the values we should bend our considerable industrial ability to pursue, these were the people of our institute, these are the people the world needs today.

SENIOR STAFF OF THE INSTITUTE

RONALD BECKMAN, Founder & Executive Director

Ron was Director of the Research and Design Institute. He participated actively in each major project. His work includes projects in urban development, education, transportation, and medicine.

Mr. Beckman received the first environmental grant awarded by  the National Endowment on the Arts. He received numerous other founda­tion grants for innovation in design: from the Graham Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Rhode Island Foundation, Educational Facilities Laboratories, and the Ford Foundation.

Mr. Beckman was educated in architecture and design at Pratt Institute and Yale University. He has served as a member of the faculty at Pratt, the Board of Governors of The Gordon School, and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. He frequently lectures at schools and colleges and is a contributor to publications on behavioral science and design.

HOWARD YARME, Associate Director

Howard served as the senior designer of the Research and Design Institute. His medical projects include planning for the group practice hospital and clinic in Columbia, Maryland; an experimental “self help” extended  care medical facility for South County Hospital in Wakefield, Rhode Island; and a series of neighborhood health centers for  Providence Health Centers,  Inc., funded by the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. These facilities were designed to support innovative preventive health programs.

Two educational planning projects directed by Mr. Yarme include the one·acre air supported campus for Antioch College in Columbia, Maryland, and  the interior open plan educational landscape for LaVerne College in LaVerne, California.

Before joining REDE, Mr. Yarme served in Kingston, Jamaica on an economic development program sponsored by the United Nations. He was on the design faculty of Pratt Institute for five years, and has operated his own industrial de­ sign office in New York.

RON JACOB, Designer

The multi-talented Ronald Jacob was a major influence on the work of the institute.

His notable projects include the design of Steuart Hill School Graphics Program, the Columbia Exposition for Columbia South Caroline Bi-Centennial, the National Air and.Space Museum, East Orange Elementary school and many office landscape interiors.

Before joining REDE, Ron worked at the George Nelson Office in NYC. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute. Ron left REDE in 1974 and joined Antoine Predock as an architectural designer in the Southwest.

PETER WOODING, Industrial Designer

Peter was graduated in 1963 from the University of  Michigan with a Bachelor of Science degree in Design. His early design experience included work with Herman Miller Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on experimental furniture and hospital equipment systems.

For eight years prior to joining REDE, Mr. Wooding was an industrial and Design Center in Louisville, Kentucky. As an account designer, he was responsible for the development of new products, and later, the development of new packaged kitchen systems. In 1970 and 1971, Mr. Wooding was on the faculty of the Louisville School of Art.

Since Mr. Wooding joined REDE in 1971, his primary  focus has been in the area of medical and educational  product development. He designed the hardware for a series of health clinics for Providence, Rhode Island; and he was instrumental in the design development of plans for the renovation of student housing at the University of Rhode Island.

JEFFREY BLYDENBURGH, Architectural Designer

Jeffrey received his architectural degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1971. He worked on REDE's medical,  educational, and public information projects.

His graduate thesis demonstrated the design advocate role which  is practiced  by the Institute -- bringing together high school and university  students  and faculty  members  in a  cooperative  venture  to  restore  an  existing study  hall with new equipment and innovative educational ideas. These studies were later applied to REDE's award winning LaVerne campus, to which Mr. Blydenburgh made a major contribution. 

Following REDE, Jeffrey and Ralph Beckman formed Beckman Blydenburgh and Associates in Providence. Jeffrey’s architectural career includes serving as preservation architect for the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency; Senior VP of Marketing with HOK Studio E, and principal with Lighthouse Creative in Winter Park Florida. Retired as an architect in 2020, Jeffrey continues his work in community service as a member of Rotary International, and as a Board Member at Mead Botanical Garden, the Friends of American Art at the Orlando Museum of Art, and on the vestry of All Saints Church.

RALPH BECKMAN, Designer/Engineer

Ralph joined REDE in 1972 while doing his architectural thesis (A Sustainable Architecture) at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). At REDE he contributed his design and engineering skills to the Stillman White Foundry project, the Chalk, Darrius Wind Energy Projects and the extensive solar and wind energy demonstration projects done for the United Auto Workers at Black Lake, MI. and others.

After leaving REDE and obtaining professional registration, Ralph teamed up with Jeffrey Blydenburgh to form Beckman, Blydenburgh and Associates, Architects. They continued the REDE tradition of innovative work in historic preservation and sustainable energy related projects. A spin-off from their architectural practice was Aeolian Kinetics, Inc., designers and manufacturer of state-of-the-art instrumentation for both solar and wind energy research. Over 3,000 passive solar homes were instrumented and monitored by SERI (USDOE Solar Energy Research Institute) using Aeolian Kinetics’ equipment and personnel. For the last forty years Ralph has been President of Design Lab llc, a product development firm in Providence.

KENNETH ORENSTEIN, Architectural Designer and Job Captain

Ken served as Project planner and architectural designer for REDE. Job captain for the rehabilitation and re-use of the vacant and the fire damaged historic Stillman White Foundry for REDE's own use and preliminary planning and preliminary design work on the also vacant and damaged Fletcher Building across the street in Providence's Randall Square area.

JAN TERESZCZENKO, Architect

Architect Jan taught at the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, VA, and was an architect at Kelly & Gruzen in NYC. Before joining REDE in 1966, Jan taught architecture design at City College in NYC. At REDE, Jan’s projects included the NEA Grant on Highway Design and the Osaka World’s Fair with HOK.

Paul Stevenson Oles, Architect

Steve Oles, a graduate of Texas Tech and Yale Universities, is a practicing architect, teacher and visualist. He served as institute architect for MIT until 1971 when he opened his own office, Interface Architects, followed by two years during which he served as architect for Research and Design Institute (REDE). He later taught at RISD, Yale and Harvard--where he was a Loeb Fellow in 1982.  

Oles is co-founder of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators, and author of two seminal books on drawing.
In 1989 he was advanced to the AIA College of Fellows, which cited him as the "Dean of architectural illustrators in America".

In addition to his work in illustration, his firm has been responsible for the design and construction of projects in the fields of elderly housing, energy efficient residential design and bridge design--all were commissions won in regional competitions. Most recently, his office has completed three award-winning residences in the Las Lomas subdivision of Santa Fe, New Mexico--including a home/office for himself and his family.

Charlie Tilford, Engineer

Graduated Middlebury College 1967 (BA, Math and Physics), Columbia University School of Engineering 1968 (BSME), Columbia University School of Architecture, 1972 (MS Architectural Technology).  Member American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASHRAE, registered Professional Engineer in New York and California.

Designed and built inflatable and tensile structures, including work on Antioch inflatable campus, Smithsonian Institution, REDE, Monarch Entertainment (stadium shows
for major musical acts)

In California since 1976. Co-founder of Southwall Technologies (pioneer in low emissivity window glazing), SunPower (supported development of solar cell production machinery), Nanosolar (participated in the work of building factory for roll-to-roll solar cell production), Commonwealth Fusion Systems (current work; supporting development of commercial fusion reactors). Tilford Engineering (many projects and machines involving roll-
to-roll production machinery in many industries)

 

REDE EMPLOYEES 1966 - 1983

• AHEARN, Katie - Researcher

• AZANO, Bill - Researcher

• BARROS, Tony - Administrator

• BECKMAN, Elisabeth - Designer/ Photographer

• BECKMAN, Ralph - Designer/Engineer

• BETTEMCOUT, Elizabeth - Administrative Assistant

• BEYNON, John - Architect

• BRASSIL, Meredith - Secretary

• BROWN, Michael 

• BUTTFIELD, Bill - Designer

• CARLETON, Tom - Designer

• CARPENTER, Jim - Designer

• CICCELLINI, Joann  

• D’ABROSCA, Lucy - Secretary 

• COOK, Cynthia - Executive Secretary

• D’AMBRA, Joanna

• DAIR, Patricia

• DAMIAN, Michael    

• DI FIORE, Donna

• DWIGGINS, Gene - Photographer

• EARLEY, Benita  

• FAIN, Barnet - 4th and last chairman 

• FERNANDEZ, Meredith – Secretary

• FINK, Colin - Designer

• GAULEN, Ken - Designer

• GODFREY, Eric - Administrator

• GRIEFENDORF, Jim – Designer

• JOHANSON, Chris - Designer

• KOREN, Miriam - Researcher

• LEE, Franny - Designer

• LEGGITT, John - Designer

• LUCEY, Christina  

• McCANN, John - Contractor

• MILLER, Daniel

• MILLER, G. William - 1st chairman President of Textron Corp.

• MOFFAT, Ann - Secretary

• NEFF, Paul

• OLES, Steve - Architect

• PRIESTLEY, Joanna 

• RAMOS, Tony - Film maker

• SHARPE, Henry - Designer

• STOCKAR, Ivo - Designer

• STURGES, Benjamin - 2nd chairman

• TILFORD, Charlie - Engineer   

• TORZI, Cindy - Secretary

• VOYE, Barbara - Secretary

• WARREN, Bonnie - Secretary

• WATERMAN, Kate - Secretary   

• WEYMOUTH, Ralph - Admiral, 3rd Chairman

• WILKES, Ray - Designer                                  

• WILLIAMS, JoBeth - Researcher

• WITTNER, Ezra - Designer. 

• WOODING, Joann - Researcher

• YARME, Judith - Researcher