CannonDesigners in the NYC Office are showing their support for National Bike Month and Bike to Work Week 2016! Meeting up in different parts of the city and riding to work in “caravans,” the participants are gaining safe urban commuting knowledge, getting exercise (especially going over bridges!), living out our sustainability goals, and helping to grow the community of bikers here in NYC. Congratulations to a successful first day team of Heather Clinger, Elisa Feng, Ryan Koella, Siobhan Lee,Heather Rosen, Sarah Ruel-Bergeron, and Aysu Unal! Here’s to a great coming week: Thursday 5/19 – Central Park Snack and Ride picnic after work. Friday 05/20 – National Bike to Work Day “Meeting”…

The planning and execution of major construction projects can be challenging and stressful endeavors for organizations. Whether it’s the expansion of an existing hospital, the renovation of a student center on a university campus or a brand new corporate headquarters, the potential for legal risk, financial loss and poor outcomes can keep company leadership up at night. It’s important for executives to not simply view construction efforts as necessary evils and instead take an active role in pushing their teams to find better solutions. There are new delivery models and strategies that can significantly reduce risk, enhance certainty of outcome and help companies achieve their financial and operational goals. Once…

In anticipation of the announcement of this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate our team in New York City held a good old-fashioned guessing game that sparked conversation, debate and research around the great living architects and speculation on who would receive the profession’s highest honor for 2016. 24 guesses were made, including Steven Holl, David Adjaye, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, David Chipperfield, Jeanne Gang, Moshe Safdie, Baumschlager+Eberle, Kengo Kuma, Bijoy Jain, Bjarke Ingels, Tod Williams & Billie Tsien, Ricardo Bofill, Sou Fujimoto, Peter Eisenman, Francine Houben, Santiago Calatrava, and this year’s recipient, Alejandro Aravena. We extend our congratulations to Mr. Aravena and are grateful for his distinctive contributions to the profession.

Our New York City team kicked off 2016 by participating in the Design Within Reach Champagne Chair ChallengeTM — an annual competition to create the most original miniature chair design out of materials (except glass) from no more than two champagne bottles, with glue as the only permitted adhesive. CannonDesigners came up with 15 amazing ideas, but an internal vote ruled the landslide winner as #15, the Game of Thrones-inspired “Winter is Coming.” Check out all of our designs below, and cheers to a happy, healthy 2016. #1 Bourgeois Lounge & Table // #2 Way Back Recline // #3 Heatherwack // #4 Troll Chair // #5 RockingKing #6 Curvy Chair // #7…

CannonDesigners in St. Louis recently participated for the first time in the annual “We Care” event. This charitable event, co-hosted by international design firm Herman Miller and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, provides children who may not otherwise be able to afford gifts for friends and family the opportunity to craft gifts for their loved ones. Each year Herman Miller reaches out to local design teams and asks them to come up with a craft that can be made by children ages 5-13. In the spirit of the holidays, we came up with the idea to make colorful Christmas trees out of cardboard and fabric. We were one…

Our Open Hand Studio hosted their fifth annual Meet & Match event in our brand new Boston office last week. With the Boston Society of Architects Foundation as our partners, we opened our doors to our new neighborhood and hosted a night of celebrating community-based design in Boston. The event was a wonderful success, bringing over 70 designers and community group leaders together for a one-of-a-kind opportunity: to share public interest design project ideas and meet with potential new partners in order to realize those concepts. I feel very thankful we were able to connect with and contribute to our Boston community in this way! Attendees heard from two kickoff speakers:…

What is good design? Do you think good design happens automatically? For my entire career, I have been interested in design culture and am motivated by the power of individual expression and perspective. Encouraging ideas and creativity within our offices is not only invigorating, but is essential for sustaining a practice focused on design excellence. How do we advance and nurture design culture? Here are four ways that I’ve seen work well in our St. Louis office: 1. Believe in design excellence In order to create a true culture of design excellence, everyone needs to be engaged with the goal of improving each stage of a project. From every level…

Luke Johnson, Assoc. AIA, received the 2015 AIA Buffalo/Western New York Community Service Award for outstanding volunteer service on behalf of architecture and the built environment. Luke has made a priority in his architectural career to promote and enhance the profession through community outreach. He has an incredibly active voice in Buffalo’s design and non-profit communities. Luke currently holds a board position at the Buffalo Architecture Foundation (BAF) and co-chairs the Architecture+Education (Arch+Ed) program run through BAF. Arch+Ed was founded to increase awareness of the importance of design and use architecture as a lens for multidisciplinary and active learning. The program’s success lies in the collaboration between Buffalo Public School teachers, University…

By Sally Gales and Kate St. Laurent CannonDesign’s move to 99 Summer Street created a unique opportunity to create studio space truly reflective of who we are as a design firm today. With the help of some of our interior design and workplace strategy colleagues from around the firm, we were able to design a high-performing office in the heart of downtown Boston. Here are the five things we love most about our new office: More opportunities for interaction and integration. The layout of our previous studio consisted of two main areas divided by the building core and conference rooms, leaving our engineers, science + technology and healthcare groups on the…

The University at Buffalo (UB) team placed second overall in the national U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The team has been hard at work for over two years, fundraising and planning to make this ultra-sustainable home a reality. The UB team finished with 941.191 points out of a possible 1,000 for the GRoW (Garden, Relax or Work) Home. Stevens Institute of Technology, hailing from Hoboken, New Jersey, took first place with 950.685. Cal State Polytechnic University was a distant third at 910 points. CannonDesign joined many of our local client-partners to support the UB solar decathlon team over the years. At last year’s Environmental Awareness Week, Bob Shibley, dean of UB’s School…