The new Van Beuren Building for St. Michael's School, a private institution for 240 students, grades pre-school through nine, sits on a 6.7 acre site atop a hill in Newport, RI, overlooking Easton's Beach. Originally a private estate and home (one of Newport's summer "cottages"), it was designed in 1902 for Miss Ellen Mason by Erving Gill in his Hispano-California Style with the grounds and gardens by Frederick Law Olmsted. St. Michael's School acquired the property in 1947. The site is in both a national and local historic district and was placed on the National Register in 1973.

In 1981 the Architect developed a master plan in response to an expanded educational program. Five alternative locations for a new building were studied, including a complete new campus at another location. An area to the north side of the site was selected as it was within the existing campus circulation system and preserved Olmsted's open space for playing fields. The selected site had a history of building: a green house, gardener's cottage, stables, vegetable gardens and access roads, so it had been disturbed several times before. The solution to the problem of designing a new building for eight classrooms, teachers' space, small reception area and possibly a multi-purpose room and athletic facilities was tempered by poor soil conditions, extremely tight budget, and the wish to defer architecturally to the existing historically significant building and landscape.