Crème de la Crème

Brad wears Motion Wool Twill Clinton Blazer in Silver Stone ($495), Light Bilen Goris Long-Sleeve Polo Shirt in Oat Milk ($225), and Motion Wool Twill Curtis Drawstring Pant in Silver Stone ($265) by Theory.

Kin Woo: You grew up in Portland and now live between there and New York City. How do you find a balance? 

Brad Cloepfil:  I’ve had this perfect life for the last 25 years of spending half my time in New York and half my time in Oregon. You’ve got the creative energy of the people and the city, and then the more introspective and spiritual element of the West Coast. 

Woo: How does it feed into your practice?

Cloepfil: The studio is a very introspective place. We’re not high profile, and we’re not branding and marketing ourselves. There’s a  sense of humility. Theory has always been about making beautiful things first and it’s the same with Allied Works. 

Woo: What was the first building you encountered that created a sense of emotion? 

Cloepfil: I got to go to Notre-Dame in Paris in my early twenties in the middle of winter, long before social media. I went with about 12 people, which is impossible today. It was dark, and the choir was practicing. It was a very transcendent experience. 

Woo: Was working with Theory the first time you’d ever collaborated with a fashion brand? 

Cloepfil: Yes, I think that’s why I was so excited. Clothing, for me, is an art form. I was fortunate to work with the designers and creatives at Theory, and learned that the creative process for both of us is almost the same: the search for the imagery, and color, and spirit of a piece. When you go to a creative studio and the walls are covered with images, it’s exactly the same as our studio when we start. It’s the same search. It just happens to be clothes with some people, buildings with some people, sculptures with other people. That was one of the most fascinating revelations for me. 

Woo: What did you know of the brand when conversations started with them? 

Cloepfil:I don’t know if anybody else was really doing anything like them at the time. The sort of minimal, iconic, archetypal pieces. Again, those are all architectural concepts: We work with archetypes because they have thousands of years of history. That is really similar to what Theory does; Theory hits that sweet spot of being contemporary but timeless. It’s a shared ethic. 

Woo:  Were there specific aspects of your practice that Theory was interested in bringing to this project?  

Cloepfil:  I think it was the quiet language, not claiming its space by being bombastic. It’s very subtle, beautifully made, with deep care for the materials and craft.

Woo: What questions were you asking the Theory team? 

Cloepfil: The first conversations were about the nature of the brand and what they’re trying to do. The nice thing about Theory is that you have the legacy, and the work they’ve done, and the pieces they’ve made, so you get a sense of it. But it was fun to hear it from the design and creative leads. I went right in asking, “Where are you trying to take it? How are you trying to change it?” That’s what architecture can facilitate: It can create a home that nurtures those ideas and values. One of the big things was trying to mix the creative studios so they weren’t all siloed. We made a vertical street through the space where people would have some form of contact and interaction.

Woo: Did you want to design the space to encourage this maximum exchange of ideas? 

Cloepfil: Yeah, it was the idea of having some kind of creative laboratory and exchange. It’s like a bioresearch center, where all the scientists from around the country come together. 

Woo: What was the space before you took it over?    

Cloepfil:  It was a really beautiful 1920s industrial building. I had lived nearby, on Horatio and Hudson Street, so I had passed by the building quite a bit, and the spaces were just gorgeous. I wanted to weave these studios in a really beautiful shell and let the old and the new be separate but also coexist. 

Woo: What were the challenges you faced in reimagining the space?

Cloepfil: There was a unique blend of creativity, prototyping, and production, and I think that’s what made it interesting. It truly was a laboratory, and it still is today. I don’t know who else does all that in one building.

Woo: You mentioned that materials are so important to the brand and to Allied Works. You’ve got aluminum, plaster, and wood. What was the thinking behind the choice of materials? 

Cloepfil: The building is concrete, so it’s not the warmest place to spend 10 hours a day. Part of bringing in the wood was about introducing warmth and tactility. The metal screen was another rich material. 

Desk to Dusk

Brad wears Motion Poplin Motion Shirt in Dusk Blue ($225), Cotton Jersey Precise Tee in White ($75),

and Stretch Wool Mayer Pant in Navy ($285) by Theory.

Woo:  What do you hope a visitor takes away from the experience of being in the building? 

Cloepfil: There’s transparency. As one moves up and down the stairs, you can see into the studios. Over the course of my career, I’ve designed restaurants where the kitchens open up, so you can sit and look in. In museums, people love looking into the studios to see things being made, preserved, and crafted. People love to look behind the curtain, trying to understand the process. The whole goal of almost every company now is to bring different people together. People need collective experience.

Woo:  Is that the role of architecture? Creating spaces that bring people together?

Cloepfil: It’s one of the things architecture can do, right? When we first began designing museums, one of the things we thought about was how can we increase membership? What can we do to bring people in? You can add all these amenities and additional programming, which helps, but having a powerfully beautiful space is the rarest thing. If you can achieve it, people will want to be there. 

Woo:  Looking back at your career, what are you most proud of, and what’s the next chapter for Allied Works? 

Cloepfil: Our buildings move people. I meet people at parties, in restaurants, and on the street who just want to talk about the experience of being in the building and how it made them feel. It’s thrilling. I’ve spent my career trying to understand the power and voice of architecture and then applying that to these different disciplines in a way that can inspire people. That’s about as fun as it possibly gets.

Woo:  Are there any unrealized dream projects that you can reveal?

Cloepfil: There are so many. I’ve wanted to do a botanical garden my whole life. Originally, I wanted to be a botanist. The landscape has been my primary inspiration from the very beginning. I want to break the boundaries between building and landscape and make it one thing. 

Woo: I know you were an artist before becoming an architect. Do you still indulge in your artistic side?  

Cloepfil: Yeah, I make drawings; it’s my way of thinking. I also love writing. I’m working on a new book about creative thinking: what inspires the creative practice, and then the creative practice itself. I read a ton of poetry too. I was led to poetry in order to find the language to express the possibilities of space. It’s been a huge inspiration. With architecture, and design in general, you can describe how something looks, and most people can genuinely follow you, but the quality and the experience is much more Ephemeral. 

CREDITS

Talent: Brad Cloepfil  

Words: Kin Woo 

Photography: William Jess Laird 

Fashion: Marcus Allen 

Groomer: Hide Suzuki 

Photo Assistant: Nick Sgaglione 

Fashion Assistant: Izaake Zuckerman 

Production: The Morrison Group 

Special Thanks Laird and Good Company.