We are proud to share our new partnership with STRT - a leader in the design and operation of living and working space for entrepreneurs and creatives - to design breakthrough live-work environments.
The Yazdani Studio has helped STRT create a new concept focused on the user experience of entrepreneurs and creatives that combines coliving, coworking and startup accelerator services into each property. The uniquely designed spaces are calibrated to foster creativity, collaboration and success.

“Imagine if you could take the elements of Silicon Valley that make entrepreneurs successful - creativity, passion, talent capital - and then make it accessible without having to move to the Bay Area,” said STRT founder Troy D’Ambrosio. “STRT creates a unique user experience for creatives and entrepreneurs through the building design, programming and resources that aim to provide access to this environment for entrepreneurs located anywhere.” Added STRT co-founder and CEO Victor Gill.

Excited about the partnership and opportunity, Mehrdad Yazdani, director of the Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign shared, “Working with Troy, Victor and the STRT team to design these live/work concepts has been inspiring. They have a vision that will empower entrepreneurs and creative minds all over the country - and we’re proud to be designing the living concepts critical to them achieving this vision.”

The STRT Nodes the Yazdani team are designing merge coliving, coworking, accelerator services and capital under one roof, eliminating the need for the founding team to find these resources on their own. Each STRT Node will bring talented people together in one location - a mini-city shaping the future. Amenities within the STRT nodes will focus on the needs of today’s entrepreneurs and be all-inclusive providing data services, cleaning, working space, meeting rooms and a café.

For Yazdani and D’Ambrosio, this STRT partnership is an opportunity to build on the success the duo has had empowering higher education entrepreneurship. Also the Director of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah, Troy worked with Mehrdad and CannonDesign to create Lassonde Studios - a breakthrough entrepreneurial education building that combines residences with a 20,000 sf innovation hangar where students live, learn and launch companies.

Opened just three years ago, Lassonde Studios has quintupled the number of annual student startups on campus, vaulted the university in key industry rankings and launched companies touching energy, sustainability, fashion, outdoor apparel and more. The building won the inaugural SXSWedu Learn X Design Award and has been profiled extensively by the New York Times, Fast Company, EdSurge, Architectural Digest, Entrepreneur and other key media.

“The STRT concept creates a town of entrepreneurs. A place where people live, eat, work and create together,” added D’Ambrosio. “The result is more than the sum of its parts. Our goal is to take the STRT concept to 50 or more cities and bring access to entrepreneurs everywhere.”

As follow up to the University of Utah’s Lassonde Studios being named the recipient of an American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Outcome by Design Awards winner this past March, ASID and Metropolis magazine have now published a Video feature on the project. The video profiles the project through the perspectives of Lassonde Studios leadership, students and the design team to share how the building strengthens the campus, helped quintuple student startups on campus, and vaulted the university to the top 10 for entrepreneurship in key rankings with Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report and Bloomberg.
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Mehrdad Yazdani will present as part of the AIA New York’s Cocktails & Conversations series Friday, June 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the Center for Architecture in New York City. The dialogue series pairs an architect with a critic, journalist or architectural historian to discuss current architecture design issues over cocktails. Mehrdad will be joined by Sam Lubell, a staff writer and contributing editor to The Architect’s Newspaper for the conversation. Those interested in attending, can register online.

CannonDesign has again been named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. This marks the second time in three years CannonDesign has earned this prestigious distinction. It is powerful recognition of the hard work our people do each day to amplify the power of design.

“A 20-person team at CannonDesign, called Yazdani Studio, acts as an experimental think tank that helps to drive innovation within the firm.”

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Signs of the Times published a story about collaborative design that focuses on the Anne Frank exhibit at the Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance.
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