Allied Works is an architecture and design studio founded by Brad Cloepfil, with offices in Portland and New York. The practice is best known for museums, cultural institutions, and workspaces that emerge from close study of place, program, and material performance.
Rather than applying a signature style, Allied Works begins with the specific energies of a site—its topography, climate, and history—then develops forms that channel those forces. Walls are treated as thick, carved elements; openings behave as controlled apertures; roofs and ceilings often register structural rhythm and light.
Projects such as museums, music centers, and creative campuses are organized around sequences of voids, courts, or internal streets that guide movement and gathering. Structure is expressed without heaviness, using concrete, brick, timber, and steel in ways that feel both robust and finely tuned.
Interior spaces frequently reveal layers of construction and craft. Surfaces may hold traces of making—board-formed concrete, patterned brickwork, carefully detailed wood—giving large buildings an intimate scale. The result is architecture that feels at once austere and deeply atmospheric.
Over time, Allied Works has developed a body of work that demonstrates how contemporary institutions can be both iconic and grounded, balancing bold formal decisions with a sustained commitment to context and user experience.
Allied Works is an architecture and design studio recognized for museums, cultural buildings, and workspaces that emphasize material richness, structural clarity, and carefully choreographed circulation. The practice operates from Portland and New York and has completed projects across North America and beyond.
Allied Works is an architecture studio founded by Brad Cloepfil, known for museums, cultural institutions, and workspaces that combine material richness with structural clarity. The practice approaches each project as a site-specific instrument for light, sound, and movement.
