Influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as Paolo Soleri, Bruce Goff and Gunnar Birkerts, Bruder opened his own design studio in 1974. His self-built house/studio on the desert edge of Phoenix won the 1975 Architectural Record House of the Year award.

A Fellowship in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome was a career turning-point permitting several months of intense reflection from a studio overlooking Rome, and travel throughout Europe to study historic and contemporary architecture.XX
Filled with fresh perspective, Bruder won the commission to design the 280,000sf Phoenix Central Library. It opened in 1995. Cultural, civic and private commissions followed, as did opportunities to travel, lecture, and teach. The library was awarded the AIA 25 Year Building Award in 2021.

This superb collection is divided into two sections: pre-Rome Prize projects, presented in black and white, and post-Rome projects dating from 1987 to buildings still currently under construction, presented in color. Scholarly essays and candid conversations with colleagues round out this long-awaited Bruder monograph.