As many may have already read, Amazon recently announced it plans to invest $700 million to retrain one-third of its workforce to help ease the effects of automation. The company expects more than 100,000 employees will undergo the retraining process by 2025. Deeper in the details, Amazon shares that its “upskilling” programs will encompass teaching non-technical employees the skills needed to transition into software engineering roles; educating employees with some technical background the ability to add machine learning skills; pre-paid tuition programs so they staff can train for “high-demand” jobs of their choosing; paid classroom training and on-the-job apprenticeship; and other specific efforts. The program works to reshape a significant…

Our New York City team has numerous projects that recently celebrated or are approaching design milestones.  Via brief recaps of each project below, here’s a look at our team’s recent work. Opening Soon: Pratt Institute Emerson Hall Emerson Hall, Pratt Institute’s newest residential hall, is set to open in Brooklyn this fall. The building will be a hub for student interaction, socialization, creativity and learning thanks to a dynamic design that infuses collaboration space, maker spaces and studio resources. Emerson Hall’s residential floors are comprised of 14 rooms for students, with shared bathrooms distributed throughout and central lounges. Award Worthy: Northwell Health Huntington Hospital ED We’re thrilled to share Northwell…

Access to cancer treatment is a rarity not only in India, but in a large portion of southeast Asia. The number of new cases and deaths due to cancer doubled in India from 1990 to 2016, with many cases being treatable types of cancer if they had been caught in early stages. Behind India’s high cancer morbidity rate is a lack of education around the disease and limited medical services and insurance coverage. The Tata Medical Center was created to change this reality, acting as a beacon of hope for patients from all over India, as well as neighboring Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. More than 50 percent of the hospital’s…

We recently earned third place in the Community Choice category of the Western New York Land Conservancy’s Reimagining the DL&W Corridor – International Design Ideas Competition. This effort was a partnership between our Buffalo and New York City offices. The competition asked firms to help conceive how an abandoned stretch of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (DL&W) railway that runs from Buffalo’s Canalside to its Solar City plant could be revived. The area will eventually be transformed into an elevated park not too dissimilar from the High Line in New York City. We were thrilled to unleash our creative energy through this design competition and are proud of our proposal…

Sheppard Pratt Health System (SPHS) recently celebrated a major construction milestone on its new Behavioral Health facility in Howard County, Maryland with a topping-out ceremony – the point during construction at which a building has reached its highest, final height. Key leaders from SPHS, along with members of the design and construction teams, all signed the final beam that was hoisted into place at the top of the three-story building. CannonDesign has been leading the planning and design of the new 85-bed, 156,000-sf hospital on the Sheppard Pratt campus that emphasizes exposure to nature as part of the healing process. This building is the first to be built on Sheppard…

Our Mehrdad Yazdani recently presented as part of AIA New York’s Cocktails & Conversations series at the Center for Architecture in New York City. The dialogue series pairs pairs an architect with a critic, journalist or architectural historian to discuss current architecture design issues over cocktails. Mehrdad was joined by Sam Lubell, a staff writer and contributing editor to The Architect’s Newspaper for the conversation. During the conversation, Mehrdad highlighted numerous topics and projects that have defined his career. As both the Director of the Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign and a Principal at CannonDesign, Mehrdad practices at the intersection of the large office and small studio, developing a reputation for design excellence within the often-challenging…

We are proudly working with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) League City on the strategic expansion of their medical campus. This is a destination where UTMB offers leading-edge health care services and experiences to patients, families and staff. As part of the expansion project, our team is helping UTMB add five stories to its South Tower, to boost patient bed count to nearly 100, and also introduce more operating and endoscopy rooms, a larger Post Care Anesthesia Unit (PACU), and an expanded emergency department across the campus. The South Tower project is tracking toward welcoming its first patient in May 2020. One of the most exciting aspects of…

It has been 49 years since our first Earth Day in 1970. Forty-nine years is quite a run. The passion and awareness ignited during those inaugural events in 1970 have driven significant positive change in our relationship with the natural environment. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and many will undoubtedly hoist up that number proudly. This year, however, let’s focus on a different number: 11. According to a report released in 2018 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we must halve our emissions by 2030 to avoid a future defined by catastrophic climate change. That deadline is just 11 years away. CannonDesign knows…

Our team recently had the opportunity to attend Bisnow’s 2019 National Healthcare South conference in late February. The event united a remarkable group of healthcare leaders from Houston and across Texas to share thoughts about what’s next for patients, providers, health systems and communities. There were numerous thought-provoking presentations our team was able to attend, and we’ve summarized some key takeaways from the event below. For each takeaway, we connect ideas around how design will play a role in supporting its impact in the future. Health Systems Recognize Consumers Pay for Value, Not Medical Events A dominant trend echoed multiple times during the Bisnow Summit is the impact consumerism is having…

Although most healthcare leaders recognize the inherent link between work place design strategy and their organization’s culture, few deeply understand the reciprocal relationship that exists between the two. Far too often, healthcare leaders view their places of work and care as a container that responds to existing culture and not a change agent to inspire culture change. Those with this viewpoint have a limited perspective on how design can positively impact their system and workforce to spur new levels of success. In truth, the relationship between work place design and company culture isn’t all that different from a tango. When leveraged correctly, one can lead the other and vice versa…