This Wadia Associates-designed French Country house in Connecticut comprises elements from different periods of French Classical architecture and recalls the work of architects who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

Two Wadia Associates-designed residences of very different styles – one Greek Revival (right) and one Georgian – sit side-by-side in Greenwich, CT.

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SEPTEMBER 2008 » book review

Classically Refined

Wadia Associates: Residential Architecture of Distinction
edited by Philip James Dodd
Images Publishing Group Pty. Ltd., Victoria, Australia; 2007
256 pp; hardcover; color images: $90
ISBN 978-186470-233-0

Reviewed by Lynne Lavelle

Recent Palladio Award winner Wadia Associates (see Period Homes, July 2008) is the latest firm to be profiled in the New Classicists monograph series from Images Publishing Group, following Ken Tate Architect and William T. Baker.

Since founding Wadia Associates in New Canaan, CT, more than 30 years ago, Dinyar Wadia has worked worldwide. However, he is best known for his work in and around Fairfield County, CT, home to many prominent old estates and ambitious newly constructed homes. It is to this portfolio of work that Wadia Associates: Residential Architecture of Distinction turns its attention, and the result evidences both the architectural diversity of the "Constitution State" and Wadia's versatility. Among the styles of new construction and renovation projects featured are Tudor, Georgian, Colonial Revival, French Renaissance and English Arts and Crafts, all supplemented by a corresponding pattern book, "A Question of Style," and a list of projects.

Throughout his childhood in Bombay, India, Wadia was inspired by many magnificent buildings, including the Gateway of India, Bombay Zoo, the Opera House and the Municipal Library. He grew especially fond of Victoria Terminus – renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus – India's premier example of Hindu and Gothic architecture that was constructed by the British between 1878 and 1888. And during summers spent at a house outside Bombay surrounded by gardens, water features and gazebos, Wadia developed an appreciation for the relationship between buildings and landscapes. This appreciation would later become a core design philosophy – he is quoted as saying, "A house without a garden has no soul."

As Classical and traditional architecture had largely fallen out of favor by the 1960s, Wadia drew heavily on these early influences during his studies at Columbia University. He graduated with a degree in architecture in 1968, then took a job at the firm of Victor Christ-Janer in New Canaan, CT.

Like many traditional architects, Wadia could easily have pursued a career in Modernism. Working in New Canaan – the town made famous by Philip Johnson's Glass House – he honed his craft in Modern architecture for six years before starting his own firm in 1975 to follow his true passion for traditionally inspired homes. Today, Wadia Associates consists of eight architectural designers and an interior decorator, as well as several construction managers and support staff. Wadia Associates features a firm profile and a photo feature on Wadia's New Canaan office, the layout of which was inspired by Sir Edwin Lutyens' Heathcote, in Yorkshire, England.

Of the homes featured, two sit (quite literally) side-by-side as examples of the firm's flexibility. Set on neighboring half-acres in Greenwich, CT, the first is a Greek Revival home that was designed to appear as if it had been added to over the years; the second is symmetrical and Georgian in style. Though entirely distinct from each other, both appear perfectly matched to the location and authentic to their target timeframes. And though typically smaller than the average Wadia-designed residence, each incorporates the same Classical proportions and functions – four bedrooms with bathrooms, a wine cellar, two staircases, fireplaces in all major rooms, a pantry, outdoor porches and a study.

Landscape designer and writer Suzanne Knutson notes that Wadia does not slavishly follow precedents: "While his residences feature the classic proportions of traditional architecture, Wadia is creative when it comes to room usage, often reinventing interior spaces to include family-breakfast-kitchen combinations, exercise rooms and spas, and extensive master bath areas. Of course, such rooms were unheard of in the traditional vernacular, but Wadia is respectful of the desires of his clients and their need for a home that is practical and livable, as well as beautiful."

Wadia Associates' integrated approach to design is much in evidence at "Gitanjali," the 5,500-sq.ft. home in New Canaan, CT, that Dinyar shares with his wife Gool and their two rough collies Arjun and Draupadi. Though the English Country-style cottage – named after a poem by the Indian poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore – and its grounds were severely neglected when Wadia purchased them in 1998, Gitanjali is now surrounded by Palladio Award-winning gardens, including a brook garden, woodland walk, English border, herb garden and peony garden: "The end result," according to Wadia Associates, "is an exquisitely detailed ‘cottage' that is both spacious and modern while retaining the modest charm of the original house. Yet it is the interplay between the house and the gardens outside that linger in one's memory – just as Wadia intended."  

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