After his discharge from the Army, Ellwood returned to Los Angeles and set up a company with his brother Cleve and two friends from the war, the Marzicola brothers, one of whom had a contractor's license. The four men called their firm "Craig Ellwood" after a liquor store called Lords and Elwood located in front of their offices. Burke later legally changed his name to "Craig Ellwood". Ellwood also studied structural engineering through UCLA extension night school for five years. He became increasingly involved in design and architecture, resulting in Ellwood's first commissions, all for residences. Though Ellwood's office expanded with the size and number of his commissions, it was never a particularly profitable enterprise. It continued through the mid-1970s, with several notable projects, including the master plan for the
Rand Corporation's headquarters in
Santa Monica, California, a number of
Xerox and
IBM offices, and the trademark "bridge building" dramatically spanning an
arroyo and a roadway at
Art Center College of Design in
Pasadena. As published in the 1976, the Art Center building is recognized as the work of Craig Ellwood Associates, with James Tyler as design architect and Stephen Woolley as project architect. Some sources have sought to re-credit this building solely to Tyler, who had worked for John Sugden (a former associate of Mies) and was the architect of the Art Center addition, completed in 1991. The practice closed in 1977 and Ellwood retired to Italy to focus on painting and on restoring a farm house near . ==Personal life==