When commissioned to design a new high school for Wellesley, Perry, Shaw and Hepburn were best known for their work as the architects for the re-creation/restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. For Wellesley they crafted a compromise between traditionalist and modernist design. Their solution bares some relationship to Ragnar Östberg's Stockholm Town Hall (1911–1923) in Sweden, most evident in the tower and metal-covered cupola. The Town of Wellesley invited the successor firm to return on three occasions, adding classroom (1955 and 1963), gymnasium (1961), and cafeteria (1963) wings to form a meandering, open courtyard. The later additions further document the retreat from traditional design yet retain the original red brick for the lower massing of these elements.