CannonDesign

CannonDesign dates back more than a century. In 1915, Will Cannon Sr. started his integrated architecture and engineering practice in Niagara Falls, N.Y. His best-known works from the period was the BeauxArts style Niagara Falls City Hall in 1923. When Cannon’s sons showed interest in their father’s practice, the trio formed a family business in 1945. Today, CannonDesign employes a design approach it created called Living-Centered Design, which addresses the interdependencies that exist between people, businesses, communities, society and environment.^[3]

In 2009, the company acquired O'Donnell Wicklund Pigozzi & Peterson (OWP/P), a Chicago-based architecture firm.^[4]

In late 2014, CannonDesign acquired Pittsburgh firm Astorino Co. The deal allowed CannonDesign to expand its footprint into Pittsburgh.^[5]

In 2017, CannonDesign announced it was merging its global practice with FKP Architects, a Houston-based architecture firm with 90 employees.^[6] Denver-based Bennett Wagner Grody Architects also joined CannonDesign.^[7]

In 2018, gkkworks, an architectural and construction practice with a significant presence in Southern California and Denver, Colorado, joined CannonDesign.^[8]

In 2019, Blue Cottage Consulting merged with CannonDesign. The merger strengthened CannonDesign's consulting and planning capabilities within the healthcare, education and workplace sectors. Juliet Rogers assumed the role as President of the company.^[9] CannonDesign formed a strategic partnership with ModularDesign+, a modular design and prefabrication firm with a 100,000-SF warehouse in Euless, Texas.^[10]

In 2024, SRG Partnership, an architecture, interiors and planning firm with studios in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, has joined CannonDesign. Going forward, SRG Partnership will be known as SRG + CannonDesign. With the addition of SRG’s Portland and Seattle studios, CannonDesign has expanded to 18 offices and nearly 1,300 teammates across North America and India.

In August 2016, CannonDesign reached an agreement with the Justice Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay a $12 million settlement after it admitted to criminal conduct kickback scheme. Prior to the settlement, the former director of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center hospital and later the VA hospital in Dayton, Ohio, William Montague, was sentenced to prison for his role in giving insider information to contractors in exchange for money. CannonDesign executive Mark Farmer was also sentenced to prison for his involvement in the scheme.^[11][12]

• 2018, Laboratory of the Year Winner, R&D Magazine^[13]
• 2019, Outstanding Organization of the Year, Healthcare Design Magazine^[14]
• 2019, One of 9 World Changing Companies, Fast Company^[15]
• 2019 & 2017, One of the 10 Most Innovative Architecture Firms in the World, Fast Company^[16]
• 2020, Design Firm of the Year, Engineering News-Record^[17]