Northwestern Medicine’s Faculty Office Center wins Fast Company Innovation by Design Award
September 15, 2025
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The Northwestern Medicine Faculty Office Center, designed by CannonDesign, has won top honors in Fast Company’s 2025 Innovation by Design awards, earning the Interior Design and Home category’s highest recognition.
Innovation by Design honorees are recognized for “using creativity and unparalleled problem-solving skills to shape the world we live in for the better.” An official awards ceremony will be held during the 2025 Fast Company Innovation Festival in September to recognize the honorees.
The Northwestern Medicine Faculty Office Center sets a new standard for how faculty members can work, unwind, collaborate and more in a shared space adjacent to their clinical work areas. The center moves away from the traditional model of private offices or siloed administrative spaces towards an elegant, high-performance environment that supports restoration and focus.
The interior design of the space draws inspiration from nature, with design elements such as curved wall forms, smooth and reflective surfaces that mimic water, as well as wood tones and natural stone that aim to create a serene, forest-like environment.
The space is intentionally designed to have a non-clinical aesthetic, with an immersive, calming atmosphere. The Faculty Office Center features private rooms that can be reserved ahead of time for focused work, as well as hospitality-inspired spaces for fitness, meditation and showers.
CannonDesign and Blue Cottage of CannonDesign collaborated with Northwestern Medicine and its faculty members to explore workplace preferences, productivity needs and the necessary high-priority, time-saving amenities that needed to be infused into the center.
Also recognized in this year’s Innovation by Design awards as a finalist was Caltech’s Resnick Sustainability Center, designed by our Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign. The LEED Platinum building was designed to open new gateways to sustainability in climate research, education and societal impact. It features a timber-framed atrium that houses the center’s social and collaborative spaces, while a sweeping glass curtain wall floods the space with natural light.
These honors build on a series of recognitions our firm has earned from Fast Company, including being named one of its Best Workplaces for Innovators and repeated awards in the Innovation by Design and World Changing Ideas programs.
