Brad Cloepfil, Founding Principal and Lead Designer, Allied Works Architecture Brad Cloepfil (b. 1956) studied architecture at the University of Oregon and went on to earn an advanced degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture. After more than a decade of working and teaching in Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York and Switzerland, Cloepfil founded Allied Works in his native Portland, Oregon in 1994. The New York City office followed in 2003. Cloepfil’s earliest influences lay outside the field of architecture. While studying at the University of Oregon, he drew inspiration from the vast landscape and monumental works of civil engineering in the Pacific Northwest. While studying in New York he was introduced to the simple yet profoundly resonant gestures of land and installation artists of that time. His body of work is as informed by the land and the history of place as it is by formal training, and it is one that cuts a clear line through much of the rhetoric and formal novelty surrounding the practice today. His approach to design combines a research-intensive focus on the specific character of each project with an understanding of the profoundly affecting possibilities of building. In addition to leading all aspects of creative work at Allied Works, Cloepfil has held guest professorships at leading American architecture and design schools across the country over the past 17 years. He is also a frequent lecturer, panelist and judge at universities, cultural institutions and creative organizations throughout the world.
