History
Wainwright Cluster was designed in 1966 by the Boston-based PARD Team, a young multi-disciplinary group of urban planners, architects, researchers and designers. Formed in 1964, the PARD Team was established to meet, in the words of its founder Samuel E. Mintz, "the new challenges created by the uncontrolled urbanization of our environment, recent discoveries in the fields of social research, and rapid changes in building technology."
Prior to Wainwright Cluster, PARD Team projects included the master plan of Boston’s Watertown Arsenal Site and the Reynolds Metals Building in Philadelphia. The Team had also spent nearly two years working with Reston developer, Robert E. Simon. Operating out of their Washington office, the PARD Team assumed responsibility for much of the planning that took place during the early years of Lake Anne Village. They reviewed design proposals, they prepared marketing plans, and they worked with Simon to select architects for future cluster projects. It was, in fact, the PARD Team that singled out Louis Sauer to design the award winning Golf Course Island Cluster.
Despite the attention and notoriety surrounding the new town of Reston, Simon’s firm, Reston, Virginia, Inc., soon found itself in serious financial trouble. Its townhouses at Hickory and Waterview Clusters were expensive by contemporary standards and many homes there still remained unsold after nearly two years. By 1966, interest rates had also begun to soar to all-time highs of 7 to 7.5 percent. Desperately in need of cash, Simon looked to the PARD Team for a new, highly marketable townhouse cluster -- one in keeping with the high standards of Reston’s earlier developments, but whose prices would attract first-time as well as second-time home buyers. Wainwright Cluster was the PARD Team’s answer to the problem.
Priced from $22,300 to $31,600, the Wainwright townhouses opened in August, 1966 to wide acclaim. Promotional materials described the Cluster as "manifesting the PARD Team’s sophisticated, practical, and professional approach to housing needs." Grouped into three neighborhood subclusters, Wainwright was noted for its successful integration of design, landscaping and architectural elements. Each neighborhood group was situated around a common landscaped green. Large windows at the rear of each home provided panoramic views of the thickly wooded areas surrounding the subclusters.
The merits of careful planning were also evident inside each Wainwright home. Although the Cluster’s six townhouse models varied greatly in size and layout, spacious bedrooms, large closets, ample storage space, breakfast nooks, and even ground floor powder rooms were standard in all of them.
Despite the soft housing market, sales at Wainwright Cluster proceeded briskly. Home buyers were attracted not only by the Cluster’s moderate prices and practical designs, but also by the added convenience of spacious carports, large storage sheds, well-equipped play areas and private outdoor patios—features that would soon disappear in most of Reston’s later cluster developments. The PARD Team’s designs proved so successful, in fact, that Wainwright Cluster became the model for Simon’s next townhouse development, Forest Edge Cluster, which opened in June of 1967.
Though popular and highly marketable, the Wainwright and Forest Edge Clusters were not enough to rescue Simon from his financial troubles. Gulf Reston’s purchase of Reston, Virginia, Inc. in 1967 effectively marked the end of the PARD Team’s involvement in Reston. The Team’s Washington office was closed and its senior partners returned to Boston.
Today, the firm (now known as Mintz Associates, Architects/Planners, Inc.) continues its innovative work in urban planning and architecture. Some of its most notable projects have included Christopher Columbus Plaza at Boston’s Waterfront Park, the Bostonian Hotel near the city’s famed Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and the Patricia Hagan White Apartments, a 231-unit complex of elderly housing.
Prior to Wainwright Cluster, PARD Team projects included the master plan of Boston’s Watertown Arsenal Site and the Reynolds Metals Building in Philadelphia. The Team had also spent nearly two years working with Reston developer, Robert E. Simon. Operating out of their Washington office, the PARD Team assumed responsibility for much of the planning that took place during the early years of Lake Anne Village. They reviewed design proposals, they prepared marketing plans, and they worked with Simon to select architects for future cluster projects. It was, in fact, the PARD Team that singled out Louis Sauer to design the award winning Golf Course Island Cluster.
Despite the attention and notoriety surrounding the new town of Reston, Simon’s firm, Reston, Virginia, Inc., soon found itself in serious financial trouble. Its townhouses at Hickory and Waterview Clusters were expensive by contemporary standards and many homes there still remained unsold after nearly two years. By 1966, interest rates had also begun to soar to all-time highs of 7 to 7.5 percent. Desperately in need of cash, Simon looked to the PARD Team for a new, highly marketable townhouse cluster -- one in keeping with the high standards of Reston’s earlier developments, but whose prices would attract first-time as well as second-time home buyers. Wainwright Cluster was the PARD Team’s answer to the problem.
Priced from $22,300 to $31,600, the Wainwright townhouses opened in August, 1966 to wide acclaim. Promotional materials described the Cluster as "manifesting the PARD Team’s sophisticated, practical, and professional approach to housing needs." Grouped into three neighborhood subclusters, Wainwright was noted for its successful integration of design, landscaping and architectural elements. Each neighborhood group was situated around a common landscaped green. Large windows at the rear of each home provided panoramic views of the thickly wooded areas surrounding the subclusters.
The merits of careful planning were also evident inside each Wainwright home. Although the Cluster’s six townhouse models varied greatly in size and layout, spacious bedrooms, large closets, ample storage space, breakfast nooks, and even ground floor powder rooms were standard in all of them.
Despite the soft housing market, sales at Wainwright Cluster proceeded briskly. Home buyers were attracted not only by the Cluster’s moderate prices and practical designs, but also by the added convenience of spacious carports, large storage sheds, well-equipped play areas and private outdoor patios—features that would soon disappear in most of Reston’s later cluster developments. The PARD Team’s designs proved so successful, in fact, that Wainwright Cluster became the model for Simon’s next townhouse development, Forest Edge Cluster, which opened in June of 1967.
Though popular and highly marketable, the Wainwright and Forest Edge Clusters were not enough to rescue Simon from his financial troubles. Gulf Reston’s purchase of Reston, Virginia, Inc. in 1967 effectively marked the end of the PARD Team’s involvement in Reston. The Team’s Washington office was closed and its senior partners returned to Boston.
Today, the firm (now known as Mintz Associates, Architects/Planners, Inc.) continues its innovative work in urban planning and architecture. Some of its most notable projects have included Christopher Columbus Plaza at Boston’s Waterfront Park, the Bostonian Hotel near the city’s famed Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and the Patricia Hagan White Apartments, a 231-unit complex of elderly housing.