Design Firm Cuningham Restructures Leadership Team

National design firm Cuningham has restructured its leadership team and business model following the last 12 months of the pandemic. The restructuring includes a new board chair, Meg Parsons, a principal at the firm, and a new leadership council as well as strategies to maximize internal operations.

“We’ve long been committed to designing and bringing to life environments that are continuously uplifting the human experience and have the future in mind,” Tim Dufault, CEO at Cuningham, tells GlobeSt.com. “Through close collaboration with stakeholders, we’ve identified new strategies to optimize our internal operations, allowing us to improve and enhance how we serve our clients and partners in consistently meaningful ways as we grow.”

The pandemic has fundamentally changed many aspects of the commercial real estate market. From a design perspective, that means a focus on functional and healing. “The unprecedented events of this past year have further impacted how people view and interact with the built environment and emphasized the importance of design and delivery that is integrated, regenerative, and restorative,” Christy Cavataio, associate AIA, principal, president and COO at the firm, tells GlobeSt.com. The aim of the restructuring, of course, is to better serve developers and other clients. The new leadership council is part of that strategy. The members, including Parsons, all have a background as studio and practice leaders. “The new board chair and leadership council is charged with leading the firm to achieve our collective goals to enhance expertise in each studio to provide superior services to our clients, while bringing a body of shared knowledge and learning to how we practice,” says Cavataio. “We know that learning from each other and borrowing the best from each studio’s markets while having a strong platform benefit our projects and their outcomes.”

In addition to the restructuring, the firm is also rebranding as Cuningham from its former Cuningham Group moniker. According to Dufault, the rebrand underscores the unified company. “Cuningham recently revealed a new visual identity that reflects the firm’s evolution,” he says. “The traditional Cuningham yellow is now accompanied by a color palette with complementary shades influenced by gems of nature, representing the team’s sustained commitment to new possibilities and regenerative design, while a hexagonal grid and series of striking irregular geometric shapes further enhance the creative energy.”