 Allen is co-designer of Las Casas and serves as its ecological and business consultant.In the mid 1980s, along with a team culled from IE that included Margret Augustine, Kathelin Gray, Mark Nelson, Marie Harding, and William F. Dempster, Allen formed the corporation Space Biospheres Ventures (SBV) to invent, construct, and manage Biosphere 2.Project funding came primarily from the joint venture's financial partner Edward Bass’s Decisions Investment.