Wainwright Cluster was designed in 1966 by the Boston-based PARD Team, a young multi-disciplinary group of urban planners, architects, researchers and designers.
Prior to Wainwright Cluster, 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.
