Epstein Joslin Architects is an architecture, design, and planning firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We are nationally known for creating beloved cultural destinations and distinctive dwellings with people at the center.

Our work is informed by a deep conviction that social and personal needs should be at the center of the act of building, and that architecture should evidence a gracious neighborliness with its natural and human surroundings. 

In particular, we are guided by the following six principles: 

Places that foster an awareness of and pride in the uniqueness of a setting and its inhabitants. We seek to show sensitivity to the specific qualities of the cultural, natural, built, and/or historic context in which our work is situated.

Places that inspire people to aspire to the highest personal and civic ideals. We seek to make community spaces that bring people together to vividly and fully engage in the rituals, performances, and tasks that define their identities.

Places that support a healthy range of interrelationships of people with one another and with their surroundings. We seek to build environments that provide a healthy balance of social connectivity and personal privacy.

Places that demonstrate in craft the richness and variety so abundant in our natural world. We seek to build in a manner that celebrates a visual joy and the prudent and artful manner in which physical environs can be afforded, assembled, and cared for.

Places that address changing cultural norms, environmental challenges, and technological advances. We seek design rooted in humanist values and informed by reason and scientific inquiry.

Places that are built within principles of sustainability and inspire by means of an “elegant frugality.” We seek to allocate the investments of a project in a manner that parallels the priorities of the client and community.