At Yale, Woollen studied under modern architects Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn, Paul Schweikher, and John M.

Initially, Woollen specialized in designs for private homes, but the firm's work soon expanded to include commercial and urban-design projects.

The estimated $3.5 million project was the first high-rise apartment building in the city that provided low-cost housing for senior citizens.

[5] Some of its critics described the tower as "ungainly" and "awkward," but it received international coverage in architecture journals for its "inventive take on public housing.

[17][18] The firm's major commissions in the 1970s included the Indiana University's Musical Arts Center (1972) in Bloomington and the Minton-Capehart Federal Building (1976) in Indianapolis.

[7] The IU project, another example of Woollen's interpretation of the Brutalist style, includes work and storage spaces arranged around a cylindrical, 1,500-seat opera house.

The $20 million Minton-Capehart Federal Building, which fills in the east side of the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, was also designed in the "Brutalist architecture style.

The federal building includes a rainbow-colored mural by graphic artist Milton Glaser that wraps around the exterior's base.

The firm's design for the $2.5 million Pilot Center (1972–84) in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a milestone in its professional development.

The hospital renovation, whose construction cost was $3.5 million, was the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's largest rehabilitation project in Indiana.

)[26] Churches, libraries, museums, historic renovations, and performing-arts facilities continued to be hallmarks of the firm's work in the 1980s, which included several major projects.

The firm's architectural designs included a new monastery and academic library, in addition to renovation of the historic archabbey church.

[27] Saint Andrew's Abbey Church (1985–86) in Cleveland, Ohio, another of the firm's major works in the 1980s, has an asymmetrical exterior and striking modern sanctuary of exposed steel, concrete walls, and an upward-sloping ceiling.

Notable examples in Indianapolis include restorations of the Indiana Theatre, the main shed of Union Station, the Majestic Building, and Christ Church Cathedral.

[35] The firm was commissioned in 2001 to design the new building, but work was temporarily halted in 2004 due to construction problems and subsequent lawsuits.

The Woollen Molzan firm was eventually released from the project, which cost an estimated $150 million; however, the library addition was completed in 2007 using its design.

[9][36] The library's structural consultants "were exonerated in court" in 2009; "it is generally accepted that the innocence extended to Woollen, Molzan too.

[37] In 2010 the firm completed design work on its final project, a $3.4 million renovation of the historic Indianapolis City Market.

[38] Noted for its bold, contemporary buildings and historic-preservation projects, the firm also took the structure's setting and history into consideration when developing its designs.

Some of the firm's modern designs were criticized, such as the Minton-Capehart Federal Building and Barton Tower, but most of them were praised, especially Clowes Hall.

The firm also contributed new design ides for mixed-use urban neighborhoods, including those featured in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine Pilot Center.