When not attending lamaze classes in anticipation of forthcoming projects, Brad Cloepfil kicks around Portland with chaps like Andrew Blum, visiting old projects like the Wieden+Kennedy complex. As chronicled in “The Elementalist,” Cloepfil is one of those rare architects who seems to actually enjoy architecture:

Cloepfil climbed the bleacher seats and paused for a moment on one of the catwalks that cross the main void. An ad guy zipped by on a scooter, and Cloepfil giggled–a high-pitched little sound that came unexpectedly from his big body but seemed to define his attitude toward this and all his work: boyishly bemused at his own good luck on the surface, but in full control to the core. “Whatever it is that you sensed when you walked into the room, that you couldn’t see from a photograph, makes me believe in architecture,” he says.