How CannonDesign Built Its Own Smart Office—and What Broke Along the Way

In this NexusCon 2025 presentation, Eric Larsen, Consultant at CannonDesign, and Brian Green-Carson, Project Mechanical IV at CannonDesign, walk through what happened when their firm redesigned its Chicago flagship office—and decided to “eat its own dog food” on smart buildings.

The project covered roughly 40,000 square feet, consolidated from two floors into one, and was meant to serve as a highly utilized hub for hybrid staff, clients, and events. The challenge wasn’t just designing a modern BAS and data layer—it was navigating stakeholder misalignment, mid-project pivots, and the reality of being both the owner and the advisor. They don’t gloss over the missteps, from late smart-building scope changes to enterprise IT curveballs.

Behind the paywall, you’ll hear what actually went wrong—and how they recovered—when smart building strategy collided with architecture priorities, IT standards, GC workflows, and vendor constraints. Eric and Brian unpack budgeting surprises (including a BAS integration that started at $66k and nearly doubled before being renegotiated), scope gaps that nearly derailed AV at the finish line, and why owning the data layer became non-negotiable.

This presentation is especially relevant for FM, OT, and engineering leaders trying to future-proof buildings without blowing up delivery timelines—or trust between teams.

Watch the full recording inside Nexus Pro →