FIRM BIOS

ARTHUR A. KLIPFEL III, FOUNDER, PRESIDENT/CEO

Arthur Klipfel is one of the founding Partners of Oaktree Development. He oversees project acquisition, and as a licensed architect, the design aspects of project development. He has a strong financial background, and plays a major role in creating project budgets and structuring joint ventures and partnerships.

Mr. Klipfel has a Masters Degree from Yale University in Architecture, and a Bachelors Degree from Cornell in Economics. He also completed a year of post graduate work at Harvard in Architecture. After becoming licensed, he perfected a patented factory-built housing system and completed a successful IPO under the name Unihab, Inc. Unihab’s mission was to design and develop efficient and affordable housing, utilizing factory built technology when possible. Mr. Klipfel served as President of Unihab for 18 years when, during the 1970’s and 1980’s, Unihab completed the design and development of over a 1000 units of housing marketed primarily to young professionals and empty nesters located in urban areas. In the 1990’s Unihab was reorganized as a partnership committed to sustainable design and development, and re-named Oaktree Development.

While working on the design of multifamily residential projects, Mr. Klipfel noticed that most residential buildings are comprised of stacks of units that repeat from building to building: outside corners, inside corners and corridor units. He believed that with emerging computer interfaces this repetition could be captured to create an iterative system of designing and constructing residential buildings. The resulting system developed and patented by Mr. Klipfel, became the foundation for GreenStaxx, with the mission of offering the resulting process to residential developers, nationally.

Mr. Klipfel won the Paris Prize in architecture after graduating from Yale, and spent a year studying in Europe. He has won two design competitions, one designing a museum for Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and the second a state competition for senior housing in Chelmsford., MA. Mr. Klipfel is married to his partner, Gwen Noyes, and together they have five children.

GWENDOLEN G. NOYES, FOUNDER, SENIOR VP MARKETING

Gwen Noyes has been a partner of Oaktree Development and its predecessor, Unihab Inc, since 1973, when Arthur Klipfel and she founded Unihab. Her work in these multi-family housing development companies has been focused to date in Cambridge and several metropolitan Boston cities. Trained as an architect, she has been the designer and partner in charge of many complete renovations and new communities totaling several hundred units. Frequently working in neighborhoods that are apprehensive or resistant to change, Ms Noyes has gained substantial experience in successfully permitting Oaktree’s projects. She helps neighborhoods to envision the contribution that an Oaktree community will bring. She also led in the sociologically complex formation and development of the Cambridge Cohousing community, an award winning, and nationally acclaimed example of environmentally responsible design. Gwen and her husband, Arthur Klipfel, live in this community.

Ms Noyes has a Master of Architecture degree (honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College. She has lived and worked in Cambridge, MA for thirty eight years, though she enjoyed brief working stints in Japan, Denmark, and NYC. She has traveled extensively and served as an officer and President of the Board for the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She has also served as a founding trustee on the City of Cambridge’s Affordable Housing Trust, and is a member of Cambridge Friends' Meeting (Quaker), where she heads the EarthCare Witness Committee. Growing up on an organic farm in Illinois provided the 'germ' for Gwen's concern for the environment, and has long found expression in the design of energy efficient, transit oriented, high-quality, multifamily housing that fosters a sense of community.