AD Interviews: Brad Cloepfil / Allied Works Architecture
Recently we had the chance to visit Allied Works office in NY to interview the firm’s founder Brad Cloepfil. It was a great interview, and I really liked the atmosphere of the office: A young team, many abstract study models, beautiful drawings on the boards, and a subtle music playing in the background, it was like seeing the inside of a creative machine at work.
Established in 1994 by Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works Architecture is an awarding-winning practice known for their expressive design and pristine detailing. Portland, Oregon hosts the firm’s headquarters and maintains a close, interdependent relationship with the New York City office. Together the 50-person practice has completed a number of influential public, institutional, commercial, and residential projects worldwide.
Allied Works’ strong reputation started with the Maryhill Overlook in the Columbia River Gorge, followed by the Wieden + Kennedy Agency Headquarters. Currently Allied Works is involved in a variety of commissions, including the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, the National Music Centre of Canada, and the Vancouver Community Connector in Washington.
Architectural historian and critic, Sandy Isenstadt, describes Cloepfil’s work as “aiming to create oases of legibility, spaces that can look out upon the simultaneous contrasts of the modern world to appreciate them from a place no less complex, but one that unfolds over time, with repeated visits, rather than at the speed of a camera shutter, thereby rewarding continued occupation rather than just dazzling the eye.”
Allied Works projects at ArchDaily:
- Clyfford Still Museum
- Maryhill Overlook
- Wieden + Kennedy Headquarters
- Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
- Dutchess County Residence – Guest House
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- National Music Centre (Competition, 1st prize)
- New Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts (Competition entry)
- Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec (Competition entry)
Clyfford Still Museum / Allied Works Architecture
Architects: Allied Works Architecture
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Project Team: Brad Cloepfil, Design Principal Chris Bixby, Project Lead
Project Year: 2011
Project Area: 28,500 sqf
Photographs: Jeremy Bittermann
National Music Centre reveals design by Allied Works Architecture
Two years after holding an international architectural competition that saw world renowned designers face off in a public presentation, the National Music Centre revealed competition-winner Allied Works Architecture’s final design a couple of days ago. More images, a video and complete press release after the break.
New Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts Competition proposal / Allied Works Architecture
Allied Works Architecture was named one of eighteen international finalists to create the Pôle Muséal Lausanne, which encompasses tranforming an hlistoric train shed and industrial site into a new cultural district. As part of the competition, Allied Works created a master plan and completed the building design for the new Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts (MCBA). Future institutions include the Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains (MUDAC) and the Musée de l’Elysée. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Clyfford Still Museum / Allied Works Architecture
Architects: Allied Works Architecture
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Project area: 28,500 sqm
Project year: 2011
Renders and drawings: Allied Works Architecture
Architecture City Guide: Portland
This week our Architecture City Guide is headed to Portland, Oregon. As one of the greenest cities in the world, it is a leader in sustainable architecture. Even though Portland is only the 29th most populous city in the U.S., it has the second highest number of LEED-accredited buildings. Only Chicago, a city more than four times the size of Portland, has more green buildings. Beyond its contemporary and green architecture it has a good variety of historic buildings that are worth visiting. We have put together a list of 12 contempory buildings to visit, but since we limited it to 12, it is far from complete. We would like you, our readers, to suggest other “must not miss” in the comment section after the break.
Architecture City Guide: Portland list and corresponding map after the break!
Winners of ‘Allied Works Architecture Brad Cloepfil: Occupation’
Last Tuesday we told you we were giving away three copies of Allied Works Architecture Brad Cloepfil: Occupation. Now, thanks to Allied Works Architecture, three happy reigstered users will enjoy this great new book.
And the winners are … Nick Gee, Timothy Dickerson, and Gregory Horen. Congratulations, and remember you can register right here and enjoy the benefits!
Win Allied Works Architecture’s New Book ‘Allied Works Architecture Brad Cloepfil: Occupation’
The award winning architecture firm Allied Works Architecture has just released their much anticipated first book entitled Allied Works Architecture Brad Cloepfil: Occupation. The book is an in-depth exploration of the buildings and ideas of Allied Works, as well as a forum for conversations that consider the role of creative practice.
Brad Cloepfil, founding partner of Allied Works Architecture, will discuss the firm’s new book at the Ace Hotel New York (you can see more about the hotel’s design here) this evening from 8pm to Midnight. Allied Works Architecture has created a special installation “Forest in the Trees” in the gallery at Ace New York to accompany the book release that will run until the 28th of April. Please RSVP to ExPac at expac@acehotel.com.
Allied Works Architecture and ArchDaily are giving away three copies of Allied Works Architecture Brad Cloepfil: Occupation to registered ArchDaily users. Enter by sharing with us in the comment section your favorite Allied Works Architecture project that we have featured. Become a registered user of ArchDaily right here, share your comment by next Tuesday, April 26th, and good luck!
Maryhill Overlook / Allied Works Architecture
The Maryhill Overlook, the only structure in the Sitings Project to be completed, lies on a bluff above the Columbia River Gorge within a vast landscape of barren grasslands marked by basalt scarps—a harsh environment exposed to extreme weather and dramatic swings of light.
Project description, images and drawings after the break.
Architect: Allied Works Architecture
Location: Goldendale, Washington, USA
Project Team: Brad Cloepfil, Corey Martin
Client: Maryhill Museum of Art
Project Year: 1998
Photographs: Courtesy of Allied Works Architecture
Wieden+Kennedy Headquarters / Allied Works Architecture
The site for this project was within an abandoned warehouse that fills a city block. This allowed the Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency to occupy a single building for the first time in many years. The original 1908 building formed a solid, five-story masonry mass with little light – a perforated box filled with a gridwork of heavy timber and quartered by cruciform masonry walls.
Project description, images, and drawings after the break.
Architect: Allied Works Architecture
Location: 224 NW 13th Avenue, Portland, Oregon, USA
Project Team: Brad Cloepfil, Kyle Lommen, John Weil, Chris Bixby, Paul Kinley, Jeff Lee, Jake Freauff, Lorraine Guthrie, Brian Malady
Client: Wieden+Kennedy
Photographs: Courtesy of Allied Works Architecture
Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts / Allied Works Architecture
Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is a building that supports the production of young artists. Where the school excels in the academic preparation of its students, it aspires to forge rigorous, creative thinkers and makers in spaces that inspire ideas and provoke experimentation and production. The 200,000 sqf expansion to the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, designed by Allied Works Architecture, includes areas for the core programs of music, dance, theater, and visual arts, as well as spaces for assembly and traditional academic instruction. The expansion is organized as simple loft spaces of concrete, brick and glass that rotate around and extend outward from an open-air central amphitheater, known to students as the ‘Green Room’. The program clusters are contained in distinct volumes that provide individual identity yet overlap adjacent disciplines in plan and section. Project description, images and drawings following the break.
Architects: Allied Works Architecture
Location: 2501 Flora St, Dallas, Texas, USA
Project Team: Brad Cloepfil (Principal), Chris Bixby (Project Lead), David Suttle (Project Architect)
Project Area: 202,000 sqf
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Jeremy Bittermann and Vicky Sambunaris
Dutchess County Residence – Guest House / Allied Works Architecture
The Dutchess County Residence – Guest House is nestled within a mature deciduous forest of oak, hickory, and birch as a part of a larger site plan including a private residence and gallery. Situated above a bend in Ryder Creek it represents a place of silence, rest and reflection. Designed by Allied Works Architecture the home has received recognition from the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter, receiving a 2009 Honor Award.
Architects: Allied Works Architecture
Location: New York, USA
Project Team: Brad Cloepfil, Kyle Lommen, John Clappi
Project Collaborators: Micheal van Valkenburgh Associates
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Jeremy Bittermann, Dean Kaufmann, Helene Binet
University of Michigan Museum of Art / Allied Works Architecture
Allied Works Architecture was founded in 1994 by Brad Cloepfil and has grown to 50 employees with offices in New York City and Portland, Oregon. They have designed buildings for the arts, creative workspaces, residences, education buildings, and urban designs. Receiving numerous awards for their designs, including a National AIA Honor Award for the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Allied Works Architecture were among the five finalists for the Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec, check out their proposal here. In 2009 they were selected to design the National Music Center in Calgary.
We will be featuring a handful of designs by Allied Works Architecture over the next few weeks, and decided to start with their award winning University of Michigan Museum of Art located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The building more than doubles the program and collection spaces of the original museum while restoring the Alumni Memorial Hall. The addition occupies one of the last buildable sites on the historic campus, completing the primary public facade of the university.
More photographs, drawings and project description following the break.
Architects: Allied Works Architecture
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Associate Architects: Integrated Design Solutions
Project Team: Brad Cloepfil (principal), Thomas Robinson (project lead), Chelsea Grassinger (project architect) Allied Works Architecture, Paul Stachowiak (principal, Richard Newlin (associate sr. architect) Integrated Design Solutions
Project Management: University Architect’s Office, University of Michigan
Contractor: SKANSKA
Structural Engineer: KPFF
Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing & Fire: ARUP and Integrated Design Solutions
Lighting/Daylighting: ARUP Lighting
Curtain Wall: RA Heintges
Exhibition Design: Allied Works Architecture
Graphics and Signage: Pentagram
Project Area: 40,362 sqf (existing), 53,452 sqf (new)
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Jeremy Bittermann, Richard Barnes
Architecture City Guide: Seattle
Our Architecture City Guide series heads to the northwest this week featuring Seattle. The futuristic Seattle Space Needle, designed for the 1962 World’s Fair – Century 21 Exposition, is just one of the many can’t miss buildings on our list. What others do you think should be added? Visit our comment section to share your favorites.
The Architecture City Guide: Seattle list and corresponding map after the break!
Architecture City Guide: Dallas
Dallas is hosting both the Super Bowl this coming Sunday and this weeks Architecture City Guide! If you are heading there for the big game be sure to take a look at our list of buildings featured after the break. We want to hear from you, so take a minute to add your favorite can’t miss buildings in Dallas in our comment section below.
The Architecture City Guide: Dallas list and corresponding map after the break!
Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec proposal / Allied Works Architecture
Allied Works Architecture in association with Fichten Soiferman et Associés Architectes was selected as one of five finalists in an international competition (won by OMA) to design a new pavilion for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) in Québec City, Canada.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
National Music Center / Allied Works
Allied Works Architecture was selected to design the National Music Center project in Calgary’s East Village. The firm, led by Brad Cloepfil, will have the opportunity to “invent a new kind of institution,” as the center will be the first of its kind for Canada and will be part museum, part education and part performance. The proposal is comprised of a five-storey building that will incorporate the historic King Edward Hotel, a legendary house of blues, and provide 80,000 sf of new space for the Cantos Music Foundation’s growing collection. This project marks the first stage of the redevelopment of Calgary’s East Village and the creation of a new music district in the historic heart of the city.
More images and more about the winning proposal after the break.
