“Ennead has been continuously evolving as a practice and reinventing itself over the past seven decades, and we recognized the potential for even more ambitious thinking and action,” said Richard Olcott, design partner at Ennead. “Joining CannonDesign allows us to radically grow our impact on the built environment and invest boldly alongside a firm that has long been leading the transformation of the industry. We are going to build the best design firm in the world.”

California Institute of Technology Resnick Sustainability Center by Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign. Photo © Michael Moran

The firms’ combined influence extends across the global commercial and institutional landscape, encompassing a body of work throughout Asia where they have shaped a new generation of internationally oriented, civic-minded development. Projects range from the Shanghai Astronomy Museum and Blue Sail HQ Campus in Shanghai to the ByteDance Houhai Center in Shenzhen and CJ Blossom Park in Suwon, South Korea.

“The work across our portfolios speaks to shared goals for design excellence, but what really drew our firms together is how we think and create,” said David Polzin, CannonDesign’s executive director of design. “Our mutual respect and shared sense of destiny have made this feel less like a business decision and more like a natural coming together.”

The acquisition of Ennead is the seventh and largest for CannonDesign, giving the firm an office in Shanghai, its first in Asia. (Ennead also has an office in Los Angeles.)