About

About

Catherine Truman, CATHERINE TRUMAN ARCHITECTS

At Catherine Truman Architects, we believe that every project is different; every client is different; every house is different; and every budget is different. Great solutions share one thing in common – excellent design. Clear thinking. A solution that works so well that it looks completely obvious. A solution that looks simple but it’s not.

Each homeowner has different needs, wants, desires and concerns. We believe it’s important to listen and find a solution that successfully addresses all of them.

Every existing building, every site, and every plot of land is different. We believe that we must understand the building and site to find the solution. The materials. The restrictions. The views. The history. Everything.

Every project is different. Every client, every budget, every site – and every one of our solutions – is different. Some look more traditional, others more contemporary. We don’t do cookie cutter designs. The common threads are a simple clarity of design, and a solution which seems effortless and simple, like there couldn’t be any other solution. That’s what makes this fun. It’s different, every day.

A colleague once told me that “the most expensive house you can build is the wrong house”. Most people don’t build a lot of houses in their lifetimes, and we want to make sure that, whatever your budget, you build the right house.

So, why work with us? We like solving those problems. We like to collaborate with owners to find the best solution for them. We like to collaborate with the builder to develop the best building we can – they bring our solutions to life. We don’t drop the drawings with the builder and disappear; we are on site, with the builder, making sure it comes out the way we all want.

And while we are an Architecture firm, we are also an Interior Architecture and Design firm. We don’t just do the exterior and leave the interior to someone else. We firmly believe that the inside of your house and the outside of your house are the same house. We love designing everything from the chimney cap to the pot drawers and all the elements in between.

Our team of a dozen staff includes licensed architects, LEED accredited professionals, experienced interior designers, senior technical experts, and junior designers as well as full time administrative support. And an office dog. Our worldwide headquarters is in Cambridge, MA, with a satellite office on Cape Cod. Our work is principally in the greater New England region, but we have projects in the Hudson Valley and in California.

Catherine started the practice in 2013, after 15 years at Ann Beha Architects, where she started and ran the residential portion of the practice and worked on several important preservation projects. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Dartmouth College.  Previous to an architecture career, Catherine worked at the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, and with the National Parks Service Historic American Building Survey and Historic American Engineering Record. She has worked abroad with Foster and Partners in London, with US/ICOMOS in Split, Croatia, in Istanbul, Turkey, and in Mostar, Bosnia. She continues to travel whenever possible, with recent trips to Nepal and Bhutan, Oman, Ecuador, Iran, South Africa, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Peru, Chile, and the cities of the Silk Road in Uzbekistan, because while a good writer should be well read, a good architect should be well seen.