Brad Cloepfil, principal of Allied Works Architecture based in Portand, Oregon and New York City, founded the firm in 1994. His buildings, which include the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, an addition to the Seattle Art Museum, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, reflect his goal to create an architecture “in the experience of something, whether it is a profound insight or even just the experience of existing in a building.” Among the first projects completed by Allied Works are the Maryhill Overlook in the Columbia River Gorge, one of a series of five conceptual designs in diverse landscapes across the Pacific Northwest; the Wieden+Kennedy World Headquarters, an adaptive reuse and transformation of an historic warehouse in Portland’s Pearl District; private residences; and art galleries.

Currently, in addition to the firm’s redesign of 2 Columbus Circle for the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, which opens to the public in September, projects include the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, and the Dutchess County Residence in upstate New York.

After study at Pratt Institute, School of Architecture, Cloepfil received his BArch from the University of Oregon, School of Architecture and later his MS in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.  Before founding the firm, which has since grown to 50 people, Cloepfil had worked for more than a decade with firms in Los Angeles, Switzerland, and New York City.  He has since taught at numerous institutions across the United States.

Allied Works has been widely published in magazines and journals throughout the U.S. and Europe and will release its first book in the spring of 2009, in collaboration with Lars Müller Publishing. The book will provide an opportunity to present a comprehensive collection of past, present, and future projects.  The firm is the recipient of numerous regional AIA awards and the Progressive Architecture Award.

Support

This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.