The city design group has since begun investigating potential uses for vacant parcels adjacent to a newly renovated subway station in Chicago's low-income Uptown neighborhood, located on the city's north side. "I do think there's more to be mined by us in the area of urban design and development, particularly among existing stocks of structures," says Bergmann.

Meantime, CannonDesign's achievements are garnering the type of attention that marketers can't buy. The city design group has been profiled in Chicago magazine, and CannonDesign's corporate/commercial group caught the eye of Fortune magazine, Fast Company and CEO.com for a work pilot program it executed for Zurich's headquarters during which 150 Zurich employees spent three weeks testing each of four uniquely configured office 'neighborhoods.'

The firm's sustainable design group gained further notice when its 60,000-sq-ft Chicago office was named the nation's top LEED project for 2013 by the U.S. Green Building Council. Home to about 200 employees, the LEED Platinum facility was the only building in the Midwest to appear on USGBC's top 10 projects that year. The designation, and others like it, have opened doors for the practice, acknowledges practice leader Rand K. Ekman. "When they walk into the facility, visitors are surprised there's nothing to suggest our employees eat granola," he says. Rather, he says, sustainable elements are "baked" into the design.

In keeping with the firm's client-focused orientation, the office contains spaces where clients can drop by and hold meetings among themselves. "Rather than create a showcase, we wanted to provide a place where clients could convene and have a conversation, if that's what they wanted," says Ekman.