Cannon Design works to create timeless buildings

A staple for St. Louis architectural and engineering firm Cannon Design is its work designing

buildings for colleges and universities, government institutions and those in the health-care field.

How do you create a building that will not only serve the needs of today, but 50 years from now, particularly with the rapid changes in technology and the advances in health care?

Kent Turner, managing partner at Cannon Design, has pondered that question for some time, and now has taken the unusual step of creating teams of architects who are devoting all their time to researching scientific theories and methodologies.

Turner has set up two teams, one at the firm's office in Los Angeles and one at its headquarters in St. Louis. The Los Angeles team was created 15 months ago; the St. Louis team was put together about five months ago.

Punit Jain, who joined the firm in 1990, and Douglis Beck, who has been with the company about two years, make up the St. Louis team.

"What's being built today won't resemble what will be done there in 50 years," Turner said. "We have a responsibility to develop new ideas. We need to sell two things -- product and process. We need to focus on both disciplines. Each is vital to the practice.

"With all the developments in the treatment of heart disease," Turner said, "it's possible that the time will come when we will not perform heart surgeries in hospitals, as we do today. We need to examine how we will build surgical facilities of the future. We have to examine it conceptually."

Jain and Beck are looking at the multitude of changes in the science and technology field and looking for ways that Cannon can design buildings that will have sustainability and flexibility.

The buildings also must take advantage of natural light, meet energy requirements and meet standards of the U.S. Green Building Council. The council has been a leader in environmental design and Cannon is designing facilities that will rate highly with the council.

"The federal government spends $13.6 billion a year on utilities for its buildings," Jain said. "They are looking for a 20-25 percent reduction in that cost."

bizjournals.com        www.mahdihashemi.blogfa.com