Creative Construction

An unconventional build becomes a suburban oars with an edge

home designed and built without a specific homeowner driving the decisions can pose some risks, but it can also lead to more creative freedom and expanded possibilities in overall design and execution.

The Hemlock Hill house in Newton, Massachusetts, is the stunning result of that unique approach.

Haven Builders said ‘we’re going to take this on as more of a marketing project,’ which meant they could do things with this house that a developer wouldn’t normally do,” says Jake Lilley, Principal of Jacob Lilley Architects (JLA). “We basically got carte blanche to do what we wanted from an architectural standpoint. We just had to meet their requirements for how many rooms and other spaces it needed.

As Lilley and his team at JLA began designing the house, they sought to create a building that felt appropriate to the suburban Newton neighborhood but would have a bit more expressiveness than a traditional home. The end result is a beautiful melding of the two—the natural cedar siding and cedar shake roof ground the house in its lush surroundings, while the oversized Marvin windows give it the modern edge envisioned by the Haven Builders team.