Selected Work
We design natural modern homes that inspire our clients towards their most creative lives.
Studio News
Publications + Awards + Features
In-Progress Project: New England Coastal Modern
Set on a peninsula along Ipswich Bay, we designed this home as a series of pavilions structured to maximize exposure to ocean views. Our client expressed their desire to showcase aspects of traditional New England architecture while utilizing modernized forms and materials.
Read more In-Progress: New England Coastal Modern
Ongoing Projects + Design Inspiration
Garland Park Visitor Center, Will Shaw, 1976.
While in California, Colin sketched this column detail of Will Shaw’s Visitor Center. Shaw was born in Hollywood and studied at the University of California, Berkeley. He established his private practice in Monterey and started the Foundation for Environmental Design with photographer Ansel Adams in 1964.
A modern take on the traditional mortise and tenon joint, the structure in Shaw’s Visitor Center design is left exposed and frames the view of the surrounding Caramel Valley landscape.
Sculpted To The Land. Originally designed in 1958 by Henry Hoover, a pioneer of New England modernist architecture, this home is carefully integrated within its natural context.
As part of our restoration of the house, we added radiant heat systems beneath a new violet and green natural cleft slate floor, hand-glazed Heath Ceramics tile in the bathrooms, and refinished Douglas fir walls throughout.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
Thoughtforms
Cutting Edge Systems
Murat Oztermiyeci of New England Architectural Finishing
@heathceramics
Photography by @natreaphotography
New England Coastal Modern. Our current project in Gloucester, MA brings modern forms and materials to traditional New England architectural styles. Gabled forms are juxtaposed with a material palette of solid architectural concrete, stark slate and natural cedar.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
@benchmark_builders
Mill River Consulting
Webb Structural Services
RJZ Engineering
@sghengineering
@systemseven7
@docaboston
First Church of Christ, Scientist, Bernard Maybeck, 1910.
During his time in California, Colin sketched Maybeck’s National Historic Landmark. Son of a German immigrant and born in New York City, Maybeck studied in Paris before taking his career to the West Coast. He worked primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and taught at the University of California, Berkeley. A defining masterpiece of the First Bay Tradition, Maybeck’s church features locally sourced materials and exposed structural elements in the American Craftsman style.
Woodhaven Modern. The layout of this home in Lexington, MA is designed as a “T” shape, connecting a single-story common area to the two-story private wing. The spacious, single-story living room and kitchen space extends from a glass encased staircase which stands as the linchpin between the two areas.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
E.W. Tarca Construction
@wagnerhodgson
Columbia Design Group
Webb Structural Services
Maverick Integration
@porcelanosa
Styling by @simplementeblanco
Photography by @natreaphotography
Glass House in the Garden. Designed in collaboration with ZEN Associates, this modern glass structure features a divided interior with a seating area at the front and functioning greenhouse to the rear. Clean lines and exposed structural elements evoke midcentury design and aluminum sliding glass doors open to a Japanese rock garden situated in the landscape.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
Thoughtforms
Ron Herman Landscape Architect
@zen_associates
@siegelstructural
@sunengineeringinc
Kelley Welding
@rpmarzillilandscape
Architectural Glazing Systems
Photography by @terrificshots and Gregg Shupe Photography
Cliff House. The kitchen, living, and dining spaces of this home in Marblehead, MA, feature a soaring 10-foot ceiling. This spacious sense of interiority is in dialogue with a cantilevered deck that runs the length of the living room, extending the space over the cliff below.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project:
P.M. Gallagher Builders
@wagnerhodgson
Webb Structural Services
Photography by @millicentharvey
A visit to the new gallery at @lacma, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
The concrete single floor structure is lofted 30 feet, and hovers over the city of Los Angeles, spanning across adjacent Wilshire Boulevard. The building itself becomes a sculpture of raw material and unembellished surfaces.
Leventhal House Outbuilding. Originally designed in 1949 by architect Samuel Glaser, this house stands on a steep rise at the foot of Oak Hill in Newton, MA. The Flavin Architects team revisited the site in collaboration with Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design to construct an arcaded walkway to further connect the house, its accessory structure, and the grounds.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
@denali.construction
Webb Structural Services
@mcldllc
Photography by @natreaphotography
Styling by @simplementeblanco
Powder Mill House. Near Walden Pond in Concord, MA, this distinctly modern home settles effortlessly into its surroundings. Designed as a floating architectural bar, the house embraces the property’s glaciated landscape. The south-facing wall of glass maximizes natural light and offers panoramic views of a quiet pond and wetlands from the living spaces and primary bedroom.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
@benchmark_builders
@mdlandarch
Webb Structural Services
Beals and Thomas
@schuco_usa
@viewrail
@siematic.official
@siematic_kitchen
@anthonyconcretedesign
Photography by @natreaphotography
Crystal Lake Modern. Inspired by the natural landscape, we used a thermally-modified wood siding with expansive Loewen windows to take advantage of the property’s sight lines.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
@trentbellphotography
@fernanda.bourlot
@benchmark_builders
@siegelstructural
Rentown Cabinet Makers
RJZ Engineers
Spruhan Engineering
@tile_showcase
@porcelanosa
@designerbath
@yaleappliance
@systemseven7
@visualcomfort
@viewrail
Tanglewood Modern. Designed as four independent pavilions connected by glass-enclosed halls, this house balances providing ample space for the client’s extended family while still maintaining a sense of intimacy for when they have the home to themselves.
The house sits on a south-facing slope in a forest clearing just outside Lenox, MA. Large sliding glass doors open to a pool terrace and outdoor sitting area, further connecting this home to its beautiful grounds designed by Okerstrom Lang Landscape Architects.
Thank you to our collaborators on this project.
Chris May Builders
Jane Young Design
Okerstrom Lang Landscape Architects
@siegelstructural
Amenitek
@vermonttimberworks
Foresight Land Services
@sunengineeringinc
@poggenpohlkitchens
Photography by @natreaphotography
