On the Market: A One-of-a-Kind Brutalist Home in Weston

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

15 Young Road, Weston
Price: $2,495,000
Size: 3,081 square feet
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 4

Brutalist architecture often gets a bad rap, its concrete-heavy designs often mocked as “cold” and “ugly.” (Exhibit A: the commentary surrounding Boston City Hall.) But the Torf House, a Weston home built in 1971 for noted art collector Lois Torf and her husband, entrepreneur Michael Torf, challenges that idea. Despite its blocky exterior, listing agent Dean Poritzky of Engel and Volkers Wellesley says the house is warm and cozy inside. And if it was good enough for Torf, one of the leading art collectors of our time, then it’s certainly good enough for us.

“It’s so beautiful,” Poritzky says. “It’s untouched. The design is really circles and curves within each other…despite being cement, the rooms are actually very comfortable. It’s like you’re in a cocoon. It’s quite remarkable.”

The Torf House is now an outlier in its style, though this was not always the case. When the house was built in 1971, it was one of four Brutalist style homes in the area design by architect duo Mary Otis Stevens and Thomas F. McNulty. Over the years, the others were replaced, leaving the Torf House the sole survivor of this brutalist burst. The house has kept its original design and construction, making it a relic of a time gone by.

The harsh concrete exterior of the home is softened by a wall of windows in the back, Poritzky says, which look out onto the backyard pool and 1.5 acre lot the house sits on. The new owners will also inherit a three-piece cement sculpture placed in the yard that was commissioned to reflect the architecture of the house.

Inside the three-bedroom home are a number of throwbacks to the era when it was first built. A kitchen with a mix of wood and metal cabinets comes with a pop-up mixer/blender, a built-in toaster, and a built-in can opener, while the bathrooms have pull-down scales. In fact, much of the furniture in the home is built-in, which means the next owners won’t have to bring much. And it’s only a matter of time before someone snatches this place up. While some might balk at the Brutalist style, Protizky has found many come around on it and find it chic.

“It’s history, it’s architecture,” he says. “There’s such a movement for contemporary style that there’s a lot of interest.”

For more information, contact Dean Poritzky, Engel & Volkers Wellesley, deanporitzky.evrealestate.com.

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

Photos by Lara Kimmerer

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