Design Principal

For most of his design career, Mehrdad Yazdani has practiced at the intersection of the large office and the small studio. Named by Progressive Architecture magazine as one of the world’s top emerging designers just three years after earning his Master of Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Mehrdad has succeeded in bringing a design sensibility characteristic of boutique firms to a broad portfolio of significant civic buildings. Throughout his career, Mehrdad has maintained a consistent and clear design vision for public and institutional projects, developing a reputation for design excellence within the often challenging realm of public architecture. Today, as a principal of Cannon Design’s national practice and Design Director of the west coast-based Yazdani Studio, Mehrdad is a respected member of the international design community. His architecture continues to exhibit the delicate balance between art and function.

Mehrdad’s work has garnered numerous awards and international recognition, with profiles featured in the LA Times, NY Times, Architectural Record, among many others and has been widely published. Noted for award-winning civic commissions such as his widely-published Lloyd D. George US Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas and his memorable L.A. metro station of Vermont Avenue at Santa Monica Boulevard, Mehrdad continues to attract critical praise for his latest efforts. A student union expansion at the University of California at San Diego is defined as “ground breaking,” and has already received multiple awards, including a coveted 2005 honor award in the AIA|LA “Next LA” competition for unbuilt work. A selection of other recent projects include a Concert Hall in Ordos, Inner Mongolia; a recently completed renovation of the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and an expansion to follow; and a U.S. Federal Courthouse in Toledo, Ohio his second GSA Design Excellence commission. His paintings and other work are exhibited regularly in galleries throughout the U.S. and are part of the permanent collections of both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is frequently invited to speak about his work and in 2003 was a lecturer for the prestigious “Emerging Voices” series in New York. Additionally, Mehrdad serves on numerous design juries for universities and organizations, including AIA chapters throughout California and across the country. He was recently appointed the Chair of the GSA’s Design Excellence Award Program for the 2008 year.

His first monograph, Mehrdad Yazdani, was published in late 2005 by Balcony Press.