Bryan Bowen has been a practicing architect since graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 1995. He is dedicated to the design of sustainable structures of all scales that serve client needs and that create thriving neighborhoods that are great to live in. Bryan founded Caddis Collaborative in 2002 as bb:a.
Bryan approaches our work with a sense of humility, humor, and professionalism. Clients comment on Bryan’s ability to distill the chaos of development and construction in a logical and insightful way, creating a bubble of calm around their process.
An expert in sustainability and passive solar design, Bryan was a LEED Champion during the program’s pilot phase for the Oquirrh Park Speed Skating Oval for the 2002 Olympics, has been trained in Passive House and the Living Building/Community Challenge, and is a housing wonk with an international reputation for his accomplishments and leadership in cohousing. He was named as the AIA Architect of the Year in 2015 by the Northern Colorado AIA chapter. He was the recipient of the Colorado Green Building Guild’s Leadership Award 2019. Caddis has become a well-respected leader in market-rate housing, affordable housing, and cohousing, always with an eye to creating beautiful, innovative, highly functioning communities.
Bryan served on the City of Boulder’s Planning Board for two terms (including several years as board chair) and on the board of the Cohousing Association of the United States. He now sits on the boards of Better Boulder, the Boulder Housing Coalition, and previously for the City of Boulder, the Landmarks Board, the Housing Advisory Board, and the Design Advisory Board. This service has honed Bryan’s understanding of process and local government. He has empathy for city staff and publicly elected and appointed officials and their role with the review process. Bryan’s experience has informed Caddis’s approach to projects in Boulder and other municipalities, enabling Caddis to streamline the process for getting projects approved. Bryan has formed strong connections in government and in the local community.
A natural connector of people, Bryan Bowen quite literally walks the talk of community and place-making. Caddis’s office is located in Boulder’s Holiday Neighborhood, an award-winning, mixed-income, mixed-use, new urbanist neighborhood Caddis helped to design. On any given weekday, you’ll find Bryan walking from the Caddis office to Spruce Confections for a cup of coffee. On the way, he’ll greet people, stop to chat, and introduce a fellow staff member to those he meets. Just a short block from the Caddis office is Wild Sage Cohousing, where Bryan and his wife lived for eighteen years with their two kids. Bryan was not only the architect for Wild Sage, but he became a deeply involved member as well. It all comes full circle: home, office, neighborhood, community, the City of Boulder, the state of Colorado, and communities across North America.