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Brad Cloepfil (born 1956) is an American architect and principal of Allied Works Architecture of Portland, Oregon. Cloepfil's architectural style can be classified as part of the classic modernist revival movement. His first major project which provided a spark for his later projects was an adaptive reuse of a Portland warehouse for the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy. His more high-profile work include the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the controversial redesign of 2 Columbus Circle.

Early career and influences

Brad Cloepfil was born and raised in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon and attended the University of Oregon. After receiving his bachelors of architecture in 1980, he went to Switzerland to work with Mario Botta for two years. He then studied at Columbia University and received his masters of architecture in 1985. He founded Allied Works Architecture in 1994.

At the University of Oregon, he had worked under professor Thomas Hacker that had worked with Louis Kahn. Cloepfil became entranced by his work.

During his time in Switzerland, he observed the divergence in architectural styles between the United States and other locations where modernism was evolving such as Europe and Japan. Cloepfil termed the American postmodernism as a "diversional aberration", driven by commercialism rather than architecture.

Despite the influences of architectural philosophy from architects like Mario Botta and Louis Kahn, Cloepfil credits the physical and spatial qualities of the Oregon landscape as his largest influence. He also believes the most evocative architecture in the Pacific Northwest are not the buildings, but the unrestricted and pure forms of the rural landscape such as the dam system on the Columbia River, the silos in Eastern Oregon, and the old log flumes.

Career at Allied Works

One of his earliest projects at Allied Works was "Sitings", including the piece titled Maryhill Interpretive Outlook. Though it was a major notch in his young career, it was a piece that was more sculptural than architectural. It was a very conceptual piece and the crisp geometrical edges have not weathered well. Cloepfil admits that it should be taken down.

His first major commission for the Wieden+Kennedy headquarters was granted to him after the co-founder Dan Wieden sought out the designer of a local Portland bar called the Saucebox, which was one of Cloepfil's early tight-budget projects. The headquarters was an adaptive reuse of a dilapidated storage building. Wieden had major doubts of ever moving in there, but Cloepfil convinced him with his ideas. He turned the dark warehouse into a light-filled, open structure with cold concrete juxtaposed against warm wood. This project earned him several other projects from Dan Wieden and would prove to be instrumental in further commissions.

Cloepfil's firm was selected in a 1999 design competition for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis over world-renown architects such as Peter Zumthor, Herzog & de Meuron, and Rem Koolhaas. The museum was sited next to an existing Tadao Ando building for the Pulitzer Foundation and completed in 2003. The program of the museum was open-ended in the model of European Kunsthalls and does not own a collection. Describing his approach, Cloepfil said “I wanted a space that is energized on its own terms but also would be inspirational for artists. In a noncollecting context, you hope that artists are intensely motivated to generate work for the space."

When the Seattle Art Museum expansion committee was seeking an architect, it was the chief curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern art in New York, Terry Riley that suggested they consider Brad Cloepfil based on the work done on Wieden+Kennedy. In 2002, the Seattle Art Museum decided on Allied Works for the expansion project, which more than doubled the museum's space, accommodated Robert Venturi's original design in 1991, and also included offices for Washington Mutual until the museum expands again. Allied Works was selected over other finalists Polshek Partnership and Cooper, Robertson & Partners.

Cloepfil has also been commissioned to design the Clyfford Still Museum, which will sit adjacent and in contrast to Daniel Libeskind's design of the Denver Art Museum. He says that his goal is to provide the visitors an intimate experience with the artist and that the contrast of architectural styles between him and Libeskind's will create an interesting dynamic. The museumm, originally set to open in 2010, is now expected to open in the fall of 2011.

Controversial Redesign of 2 Columbus Circle

In a project that has faced much controversy, Cloepfil won the redesign of Edward Durell Stone's 2 Columbus Circle for the Museum of Arts & Design over other architects such as Zaha Hadid, Toshiko Mori Architects, and Smith-Miller & Hawkinson Architects. Interest in landmarking this building began in 1996, soon after the building turned thirty years old and became eligible for landmark designation. In this year, Robert A. M. Stern included it in his article " A Preservationist's List of 35 Modern Landmarks-in-Waiting" written for the New York Times.

Proposed changes to the building touched off a preservation debate joined by Tom Wolfe, Chuck Close, Frank Stella, Robert A. M. Stern, Columbia art history department chairman Barry Bergdoll, New York Times architecture critics Herbert Muschamp and Nicolai Ouroussoff, urbanist scholar Witold Rybczynski, among others. When the building became vacant in 1998 it was neglected. Yet, plans to alter the building were called the erasure "of a rare American modernist."

Stone's design at 2 Columbus Circle was listed as one of the World Monuments Fund's "100 Most Endangered Sites for 2006." In 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation called it one of America's "11 Most Endangered Historic Places."

Brad Cloepfil and other argued that the building failed its function, and Cloepfil claimed that Stone's design was "introverted," partly because during that time, the adjacent Central Park was a "scary" and "dangerous" place to be, but since that time, the area had blossomed. Cloepfil also inexplicably claimed that he wished to render the building "more ephemeral," which means "here today and gone tomorrow," as author Tom Wolfe pointed out in a New York Times essay about the building.

Cloepfil attempted to appease both sides and pay homage the building designed by Stone while at the same time, open it up for the public. He used the same massing and geometric shape, but carved channels into the structure to bring in natural light. The redesigned building replaced the original white Vermont Marble with a glazed terra-cotta and glass facade.

Cloepfil's redesign was criticized by a number of critics including Nicolai Ouroussoff, Ada Louise Huxtable, Paul Goldberger, Witold Rybczynski and Justin Davidson.

References

1. ^ Libby, Brian (2003-01-12). "ART/ARCHITECTURE; A Neo-Modernist Is Having His Moment". The New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
2. Blum, Andrew (2007-07-25). "The Elementalist". Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
3. Brad Cloepfil bio
4. ^ Horodner, Stuart (2005). "Brad Cloepfil". BOMB Magazine. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
5. ^ Libby, Brian (2002-01-02). "Interview with an Emerging Architect". ArchitectureWeek. Retrieved March 1, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
6. ^ Farr, Sheila (2005-12-04). "Museum Maker". The Seattle Times. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
7. Russel, James (2004). "Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis". Architectural Record. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
8. Farr, Sheila (2007-05-01). "With a new home and new art, will museum gain new profile?". The Seattle Times. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
9. Czarnecki, John (2002-10-18). "Allied Works to design Seattle Art Museum expansion". Architectural Record. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
10. MacMillan, Kyle (2006-11-27). "Clyfford Still Museum names Oregon firm to build in DAM's shadow". The Denver Post. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
11. Hill, David (2008-03-04). "Cloepfil Unveils Design for Clyfford Still Museum". Architectural Record. Retrieved March 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
12. "Clyfford Still Museum". Clyfford Still Museum. 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
13. "A New Face at Columbus Circle, but the Lollipops Remain". The New York Times. May 1, 2008. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
14. Hales, Linda (2008-03-29). "At Columbus Circle, Going Round & Round Over a Building's Fate". Washington Post. Retrieved June 27, 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
15. Horodner, Stuart (2005). "Brad Cloepfil". BOMB Magazine. Retrieved June 27, 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
16. Wolfe, Tom (2003-10-12). "The Building That Isn't There". The New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
17. Ouroussoff, Nicolai (2008-09-26). "New York City, Tear Down These Walls". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
18. Huxtable, Ada Louise (2008-12-10). "Setting the Record Straight About Ed Stone and Brad Cloepfil". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
19. Goldberger, Paul (2008-08-25). "Hello, Columbus". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
20. Rybczynski, Witold (2009-01-14). "Goodbye, 2 Columbus Circle". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
21. "Museum Date". New York Magazine. 2008-09-07.

External links

• Official firm website of Allied Works Architecture
• PORT review - drawings and models
• Missing the Marble at 2 Columbus Circle

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• Living people
• 1957 births
• Architects from Oregon
• People from Portland, Oregon
• University of Oregon alumni