Lightfoot A+D is a modern and contemporary architecture practice that produces design and identity across scales, from building and planning to interiors, branding, objects, and art. Founded by John Brockway and Michelle Wilson in Bend, Oregon, the young practice strives to produce distinctive and thoughtful works of architecture rooted in a conceptual framework of contextual analysis and site-specificity.
The philosophic core of the practice is a belief that design intelligence in the built environment is more important than ever, yet is oft neglected in favor of the cheap, fast, and easy. Lightfoot A+D seeks to reinvigorate the discipline of architecture by disintegrating the traditional boundaries between architecture and capital, fostering productive new forms of interdisciplinary dialogue and creative exchange. Implicit within this investigation is the intense examination of emerging technologies, ecological design principles, and potential models of alternative practice.
John L. Brockway
John L. Brockway, RA, NCARB is a registered architect and educator from Bend, Oregon. He holds a Master’s Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University as well as a B.Arch from the University of Oregon. His professional experience in award-winning offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and Zurich includes Michael Maltzan Architecture, AGPS, SLAB, and 64North.
His professional and academic focus, evidenced through design studios, workshops, seminars, built work, and speculative projects, is on interpreting the complexities of each new problem as a potential design driver. He takes a critical stance toward the inherited methodologies, tools of production, and expected outcomes of each project, and often adopts an archaeological approach to lost or forgotten philosophies, heretical notions, and obscure historical deviations.
As a design instructor, he has taught numerous courses in graduate and undergraduate architecture programs at Woodbury University, Pasadena College, and the University of Oregon.
Michelle Wilson
Michelle Wilson, LEED AP BD+C holds a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of Oregon, and hails originally from Durham, North Carolina. Michelle has practiced architecture in offices including Guenther 5 and Perkins+Will in New York and Los Angeles, taking a variety of uniquely complex building projects through multiple phases of design, from concept through construction and construction administration.
Her primary experience lies in higher education, healthcare, technology, and residential projects, with a facility for navigating complex building systems, codes, and LEED documentation.
Michelle’s personal and professional emphasis is on ecologically-sensitive design, including social and environmental performance, healthy materials and finishes, emerging technologies and systems, and life cycle analysis. A personal goal is to take a project through Living Building Challenge certification, synthesizing all aspects of her ecological focus into a holistic and high-performance design.