ESSENTIALS
Firm Name: 1100 Architect
Principals: David Piscuskas, Juergen Riehm
Headquarters: New York, NY
Accolades: Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Best-in-State Residential Architects,” 2025
House Name: House in Wellesley
Location: Wellesley, Massachusetts
Area & Layout: 13,961 square feet on .71 acres; 5 BR, 8 BA
Architectural Photographer: Peter Aaron (peteraaron.net)
It’s a problem that has perplexed architects for the last century: How do you make a modern house fit in a traditional neighborhood? That was the challenge that David Piscuskas and his team from 1100 Architect faced when they were asked to design a contemporary home for a family of four in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
“The landscape of Wellesley is dotted with white clapboard-clad houses derived from traditional New England forms,” says the New York City–based architect. “With this house, we took those material principles—making a taut, white, clapboard volume—but expressed them in decidedly contemporary ways.”
Resembling a pair of interlocking white cubes, the structure strikes a provocative pose on its leafy suburban lot. Piscuskas kept the footprint compact to mirror surrounding houses, but rejected conventional clapboard siding in favor of flush-mounted fir boards held in place with clips.
“Though it might look different from the neighbors at first glance, we designed it with a profound respect for the material and architectural vernacular of Wellesley,” Piscuskas says. “And in that way, it fits into its geographic context, too.”
The house was built with a steel frame, eliminating the need for interior columns, which enhanced daylight, circulation and sightlines throughout the interior. The driveway loops around the side yard, depositing cars in an underground garage, maintaining unobstructed views of the landscape through the home’s floor–to-ceiling windows.
The flexible, open-plan layout was designed to adapt to the family’s changing needs (a third child recently joined the brood), with a quartet of family rooms arrayed across its four levels and smaller spaces woven throughout to accommodate more intimate gatherings, abetted by retractable sliding doors. A dramatic floating staircase (a signature of the firm) links the main floors, which are embellished with blue and fuschia accents. The decor offers a colorful contrast to the austere exterior, allowing the house to honor the neighborhood while indulging the whims of its occupants.