With a workforce totaling over 1,600 employees and 20 offices worldwide, CannonDesign’s footprint is, to say the least, a large one. Today, CannonDesign announced its acquisition of Ennead Architects, a practice of 160 employees with its own long lineage to tout.
Ennead will operate as a “distinct studio within CannonDesign”—practicing as Ennead, a CannonDesign company. It will keep its offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Shanghai.
Per David Polzin, a principal and Design Executive Director at CannonDesign, what won’t change is Ennead’s “rich history.” Ennead will continue to operate as its own studio and practice just as it has for the last 60 plus years.
“We want them to retain their culture of and methodologies around design and how they work with their clients,” Polzin told AN. “So we’re seeking a reciprocal influence between the two organizations, allowing them to elevate us and us to take them to new places.”
For Richard Olcott, a Design Partner at Ennead Architects, the change marks another chapter for the firm. Olcott has worked at Ennead for 40 years. He was its ninth employee. On a recent call he told AN, “I’ve seen this place grow from almost nothing to what it is now.”
The firm Olcott started at was founded in 1963 by James Polshek. It went by the name Polshek Partnership until 2010, when it changed to Ennead Architects, a name that referenced the firm’s partnership model of four senior design principals and five management principals—in Ancient Greek Ennead translates to a “group of nine.”
CannonDesign’s history stretches back to 1915 when Will Cannon Sr. set up a practice that integrated architecture and engineering services. This combination of industry-adjacent services remains integral to the firm’s practice today. The firm employs more than just architects and engineers; its staff of over 1,000 includes experts in masterplan planning, technology, resiliency, lighting design, branding, and more.
For Ennead, combining with CannonDesign’s large footprint means access to more services and staff in locations around the world.
“If we were pursuing a healthcare project, we’d have to go find a medical planner. Cannon does that,” Olcott added. “So now we don’t have to do that anymore. We can be one firm that does all that, the whole package. Everywhere we work we tend to have a local architect. We won’t have to do that so much anymore because the footprint is already so much bigger, not only in this country, but overseas.”
Ennead’s work on Embassy and OBO projects will augment CannonDesign’s global portfolio, comprising institutions in healthcare and education. Likewise, Ennead’s work on cultural buildings such as the recently completed Delacorte Theater in Central Park and Edelman Fossil Park and Museum will be in the same “shared portfolio” as CannonDesign’s work on Caltech’s Resnick Sustainability Center and a forthcoming 100-acre healthcare campus funded by the Alice L. Walton Foundation.
“We will join forces when it makes sense and when it doesn’t, we’ll remain independent,” Olcott said of Ennead.
CannonDesign is employee-owned, wherein partners have a financial stake in the company. Per terms of the acquisition, Ennead partners will be brought on as new owners in Cannon’s model.
“What’s impacting our industry right now is consolidation,” Polzin said. “And I think you’re seeing a lot of private equity and family equity, and so we’re proud of the fact that we’re able to grow. We’re able to come together with colleagues like those at Ennead, a privately held company. And I think that’s our trajectory.”
